Author(s)

A. Alhelfi & B. Sunden

Abstract

The meaning of the word cavitation is not known or understandable to many people. The definition, which is commonly known, for such phenomena is that the formation of cavities or bubbles is encouraged by a pressure change in the surroundings. However, cavitation is much more complex. A large amount of research work and studies on the dynamics of the cavitation phenomenon via numerical investigations or by means of experimental studies have been performed in this sense over past years in order to improve the understanding of the various physical processes involved in this phenomenon. This paper presents a literature survey of existing studies on the cavitation phenomenon and aims to give a comprehensive collection of knowledge about it. The present work does not aim to review all published results in this field. The paper focuses on specific available published results, concerning the most common cavitation types especially acoustic cavitation. The authors like to provide some recommended notices and the main efforts which must be carried out to develop and contribute more efficient knowledge about the real situation and the main results associated with this phenomenon. Keywords: cavitation, ultrasonic, bubble dynamics, acoustic, sonoluminesence, bubble motion equations, sonochemistry.

Keywords

cavitation, ultrasonic, bubble dynamics, acoustic, sonoluminesence, bubble motion equations, sonochemistry.