Birth and growth of cavitation bubbles within water under tension confined in a simple synthetic tree

Olivier Vincent (1) , Philippe Marmottant (1) , Pedro A. Quinto-Su (2) , Claus-Dieter Ohl (2)

1 LIPhy - Laboratoire Interdisciplinaire de Physique [Saint Martin d’Hères]
2 Division of Physics and Applied Physics

Water under tension, as can be found in several systems including tree vessels, is metastable. Cavitation can spontaneously occur, nucleating a bubble. We investigate the dynamics of spon- taneous or triggered cavitation inside water filled microcavities of a hydrogel. Results show that a stable bubble is created in only a microsecond timescale, after transient oscillations. Then, a diffusion driven expansion leads to filling of the cavity. Analysis reveals that the nucleation of a bubble releases a tension of several tens of MPa, and a simple model captures the different time scales of the expansion process.

Domaines: Autre [cond-mat.other]; Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]

Olivier Vincent, Philippe Marmottant, Pedro A. Quinto-Su, Claus-Dieter Ohl. Birth and growth of cavitation bubbles within water under tension confined in a simple synthetic tree. Physical Review Letters, 2012, 108, pp.184502. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.108.184502⟩. ⟨hal-00752084⟩