Spark-generated bubble collapse near or inside a circular aperture and the ensuing vortex ring and droplet formation

Abstract

This paper aims to study the oscillation of a sparkgenerated submerged bubble located near or inside a circular aperture made in a flat plate using high-speed visualization technique. In the case of a bubble oscillating near an aperture the initial free surface of the water was set at the bottom surface of the plate. The effects of aperture size and bubble-free surface distance on the bubble behavior as well as on the ensuing droplet dynamics are investigated. It was found that the direction of the bubble reentrant jet was towards the aperture or away from it respectively when the normalized aperture size was smaller or greater than a certain critical value. In addition, a toroidal vortex ring was observed to form, which rotated inwards as it moved away from the aperture. It was also found that if the bubble was incepted at a distance sufficiently away from a supercritical size aperture a single droplet could be produced. In the case of a bubble initiated in the middle of a circular aperture submerged just beneath the water free surface, the bubble was found to take the shape of an ellipsoid during its expansion. Then a reentrant jet was initiated and pierced the bubble from its top side. © 2013 The Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics; Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.