Collapsing dynamics of a laser-induced cavitation bubble near the edge of a rigid wall

In the present paper, the collapsing dynamics of a laser-induced cavitation bubble near the edge of a rigid wall is experimentally investigated with a high-speed photography system. For a symmetrical setup, the two primary control parameters of the bubble collapsing behavior include the equivalent maximum bubble radius and the distance between the bubble and the edge of the rigid wall. Based on the bubble interface deformation during the collapsing process, three typical cases are identified for the categorization of the phenomenon with the influences of the parameters revealed. Through a quantitative analysis of the obtained high-speed photos, the motions of the bubble interface in different directions are given together with the calculations of the bubble centroid. The primary findings of the present paper could be summarized in terms of the bubble-edge distance as follows. When the bubble is close to the edge, the movement of the bubble interface near the edge will be restricted with a clear neck formation in the middle part of the bubble. For this case, the edge could delay the bubble collapsing time up to 22% of the Rayleigh collapsing time. When the bubble is of the medium distance to the edge, the differences of the expansion or shrinkage of the bubble interface among different directions will be reduced with an olive-shaped bubble formed during the collapsing process. For this range of parameters, the bubble moves rapidly toward the edge especially during the final collapsing stage. When the bubble is far away from the edge, the bubble will be a nearly spherical one.