Cavitation luminescence in a water hammer: Upscaling sonoluminescence

Abstract

Oscillatory acceleration and deceleration of a column of water leads to a pipe hammer as well as cavitation. With a small amount of xenon gas dissolved in the water, we can detect a stream of predominantly ultraviolet subnanosecond flashes of light which are attributed to collapsing bubbles. The observed emission can exceed 108 photons for a single collapse and has a peak power over 0.4 W.

Water hammer with column separation: A historical review

“…Their theoretical study showed that local temperatures up to 7000 K may occur when small bubbles collapse. Su et al (2003) observed the strongest light signals when water with xenon was cooled to near its freezing point. Chakravarty et al (2004) conducted tests with many different liquids.…”

Stable sonoluminescence within a water hammer tube

“…They found that a 90% solution of sulfuric acid gave SL that was 70 times brighter than water. 5 The high brightness of SL in sulfuric acid suggested the study of similar liquids, of which phosphoric acid is the only common example. Phosphoric acid 6 ͑H 3 PO 4 ͒ is exceptional in a number of respects.…”

“…An alternative method, which does not require an acoustic resonator, must be found. One promising idea is the use of a "water hammer" tube, as described by Su et al [5]. The water hammer (or pipe hammer) effect is commonly encountered in domestic plumbing.…”

Sonoluminescence from a Single Bubble Driven at 1 Megahertz

“…Sonoluminescence, an energy focusing process where sound is transduced into light by the pulsations of a gas bubble, can be observed over a remarkably large parameter space [1][2][3][4][5][6][7]. Theories have interpreted the spectrum of sonoluminescence (SL) as originating from thermal bremsstrahlung radiation from a weakly ionized plasma that forms in the highly compressed gas that is trapped inside a collapsing bubble [8][9][10][11][12].…”