Effects of bubble collapse on a solid surface: Numerical investigation

Abstract

The shock waves and micro-jets generated by the bubble collapse will cause cavitation erosion on the solid surface. In this paper, a volume of fluid (VOF) method is used to simulate the bubble collapse process under different conditions. The protective effects of epoxy resin material with low hardness and toughness and tungsten carbide material with high stiffness and not easy to cause deformation affected by the pressure jump generated during the bubble collapse are studied. When the pressure jump caused by the bubble collapse impacts the surface of the two coating materials, the equivalent stress generated on the surface is in good agreement with the pressure distribution. The deformation and deformation velocity of tungsten carbide coating is smaller than that of epoxy resin coating. Tungsten carbide coating can effectively resist the impact pressure and prevent the formation of large stress in the substrate. Overall, tungsten carbide shows better protective performance on the substrate.