On the sound of snapping shrimp

TL;DR

This paper investigates the mechanism behind the snapping sound of shrimp, revealing that cavitation bubble collapse during claw closure produces the sound and light emission, modeled effectively by the Rayleigh-Plesset equation.

Contribution

It provides a detailed fluid dynamics analysis showing cavitation bubble collapse as the source of snapping shrimp's sound, supported by high-speed imaging and quantitative modeling.

Findings

Snapping sound is caused by cavitation bubble collapse.

Light emission occurs during cavitation bubble collapse.

A Rayleigh-Plesset based model explains the observations.

Abstract

Fluid dynamics video: Snapping shrimp produce a snapping sound by an extremely rapid closure of their snapper claw. Our high speed imaging of the claw closure has revealed that the sound is generated by the collapse of a cavitation bubble formed in a fast flowing water jet forced out from the claws during claw closure. The produced sound originates from the cavitation collapse of the bubble. At collapse a short flash of light is emitted, just as in single bubble sonoluminescence. A model based on the Rayleigh-Plesset equation can quantitatively account for the visual and acoustical observations.