Taming Acoustic Cavitation

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates how ultrasonic insonation of silicon surfaces with etched pits induces acoustic cavitation, which can be controlled to enhance applications like water treatment and surface cleaning.

Contribution

It introduces a method to control cavitation behavior on silicon surfaces with etched pits, advancing understanding of bubble-surface interactions under ultrasonic influence.

Findings

Different cavitation behaviors can be induced by modulating driving pressure.

The system enables potential applications in sonochemical water treatment.

Controlled cavitation can improve cleaning of biofilms and deposited materials.

Abstract

In this fluid dynamics video we show acoustic cavitation occurring from pits etched on a silicon surface. By immersing the surface in a liquid, gas pockets are entrapped in the pits which upon ultrasonic insonation, are observed to shed cavitation bubbles. Modulating the driving pressure it is possible to induce different behaviours based on the force balance that determines the interaction among bubbles and the silicon surface. This system can be used for several applications like sonochemical water treatment, cleaning of surfaces with deposited materials such as biofilms.