Simplified Approach to Evaluate Cavitation Intensity Based on Time Information on Imposed Pressure in Liquid

Cavitation damage is an important research topic in fluid–structure interactions, such as those being studied using the mercury target for the pulsed neutron source at the Materials Life Science Experimental Facility/Japan Proton Accelerator Complex. Hence, the estimation of cavitation damage (cavitation intensity) is required from the perspective of structural integrity. The results of previous studies suggest that the maximum radii of cavitation bubbles immediately prior to collapse are related to cavitation intensity. Therefore, we propose a method for estimating the maximum radius from the time information by measuring the vibrations of structure walls that are induced by collapsing cavitation bubbles in a confined liquid. In this study, we used a magnetic impact testing machine to experimentally investigate the cavitation bubble dynamics, directly observe the bubble collapsing behavior, and measure the induced vibration. We experimentally confirmed that the time information is useful in the estimation of the maximum radii of bubbles. Moreover, we theoretically derived a simple evaluation formula to estimate the maximum radius from the time responses of the imposed pressure in a confined liquid in a structure.