Bubble Dynamics and Cavitation

The first analysis of a problem in cavitation and bubble dynamics was made by Rayleigh (1917), who solved the problem of the collapse of an empty cavity in a large mass of liquid. Rayleigh also considered in this same paper the problem of a gas-filled cavity under the assumption that the gas undergoes isothermal com­ pression. His interest in these problems presumably arose from concern with cavitation and cavitation damage. With neglect of surface tension and liquid viscosity and with the assumption of liquid incompressibility, Rayleigh showed from the momentum equation that the bubble boundary R(t) obeyed the relation RR+W<)2 = p(R)oo, p (1.1)