The study of the erosion activity of cavitation is of considerable interest for clarifying the mechanism of the effect of cavitation on biological tissues and cells. This paper proposes an improved technique for assessing the erosion activity of acoustic cavitation. The results of testing this technique in relation to the problem of studying the distribution of erosion activity in the cavitation region, generated by a radiator with a rod waveguide, are presented. The experiments were carried out using a submersible emitter with a resonant frequency of 32 kHz. It was found that erosion activity rapidly decreases with distance from the emitter and depends on the distance to the emitter L as 1/L3 when the diameter of the emitter is less than or of the order of the wavelength in the used liquid. It was shown that there is a correlation between the erosion activity of cavitation and the readings of the cavitometer with the output signal being the integral intensity of the highfrequency component of the cavitation noise in the frequency range up to 10 MHz. Piezoelectric sensors were used to register cavitation noise. In particular, in liquids characterized by a higher level of erosion activity, the output signal of the cavitometer is also higher. In this case, the readings of the cavitometer change depending on the distance to the radiator as 1/L. Based on the data obtained, a method is proposed for assessing the erosion activity of cavitation by the magnitude of the intensity of cavitation noise in a cube. It is shown that this parameter is linearly related to the results of measurements of the erosional activity of cavitation. The results obtained will be used in the development of a specialized cavitometer designed to assess the erosion activity of cavitation during in vitro studies of the effect of ultrasound on cells.

The cavitation activity during ultrasonic treatment of magnesium particles has been investigated. The cavitation activity recorded in a continuous mode of ultrasonic treatment altered in a wide range at constant output parameters of the generator. The rate and nature of cavitation activity variation depended on the mass fraction of particles in the suspension. It has been demonstrated that during the ultrasonic treatment of magnesium aqueous suspensions it is possible to determine the following stages: growth of cavitation activity, reaching a maximum followed by a decrease and reaching a plateau (or repeated cycles of increasing or decreasing cavitation activity). The complex nature of the cavitation activity dynamics is associated with the participation of hydrogen released as a result of the chemical interaction of magnesium particles with water in the formation of the cavitation zone. The magnesium particles modified with ultrasound were characterised with the use of scanning electron microscopy, X-ray phase analysis and thermal analysis. It has been found that ultrasonic treatment of magnesium particles resulted in the formation of magnesium hydroxide and magnesium hydride phases.

At present, the field of applications of powerful ultrasound is expanding intensively, and the improvement of equipment and technological processes continues. With that, the key factor in the effect of ultrasonic vibrations on processes in liquids and liquid-like media is cavitation, i.e. the phenomenon of formation, pulsation and collapse of gas microbubbles under the influence of variable pressure. The widespread introduction of promising ultrasound technologies is largely constrained by the fact that the patterns of cavitation generation are not well understood, and the data known in the literature are contradictory and are characterized by low reproducibility. This paper describes an innovative method for studying ultrasonic cavitation. In order to increase the reproducibility of the results and the reliability of the conclusions about the correlation of various cavitation effects, it is proposed to register simultaneously the parameters characterizing these effects. An installation designed to implement this method has been developed and tested. The installation provides the ability to register the full output signal of the hydrophone, the intensity of the glow generated in the cavitation region - sound luminescence, the cavitation noise spectrum and its individual components. Technical characteristics of the installation allow you to adjust the rate of development of the cavitation region by varying the duration and period of the ultrasound pulses. It is possible to conduct experiments both in low-frequency (LF) and high-frequency (HF) fields as well as in interacting HF and LF ultrasonic fields. During the testing of the installation, the results were obtained that are of considerable interest from the point of view of refining the ideas about the mechanism for generating cavitation effects. It was found that preliminary treatment of the liquid in an ultrasonic field with the aim of its degassing for 15–20 min provides a significant increase in the reproducibility of measurements, especially for liquids with a high gas content. Based on a comparison of the time dependences of the signals of the cavitation sensor and the photomultiplier output, the characteristic stages of the development of the cavitation region are distinguished, which differ in the dynamics of the development of the cavitation region and in the composition of the cavitation noise spectra recorded.