Molecular dynamics simulation of ultrasound cavitation occurring in copper–water nanofluid

Abstract

It is necessary to reveal the impact of nanoparticles on ultrasonic cavitation phenomena in nanofluids, which is conducive to the heterogeneous nucleation applications of ultrasonic cavitation. In this work, the ultrasonic cavitation processes in pure water and nanofluids were simulated by molecular dynamics. Then, the effect of nanoparticles on ultrasonic cavitation was investigated by adding alternate positive and negative pressure waves. After that, the formation of critical bubbles in cavitation and the collapse of nanobubbles by shock waves were studied by using Voronoi mosaic method and rigid body model, respectively. Finally, the regenerated nanobubbles were analyzed after the collapse of nanobubbles. The results show that the nanoparticles could promote the formation of nanobubbles, and consequently, the nano-jets and nanoparticles movement occur during the collapse of nano-bubbles. Additionally, more tiny cavities generated after the collapsing of nanobubbles and the number of nanobubbles during second cycle will be larger than that of the first cycle. As a result, some of these cavities promote the generation of multiple ultrasonic cavitation bubbles in the subsequent ultrasonic cycle. This leads to the chain reaction effect of ultrasonic cavitation phenomenon occurring in nanofluids.