Jetting enhancement from wall-proximal cavitation bubbles by a distant wall

An additional distant wall is known to highly alter the jetting scenarios of wall-proximal bubbles. Here, we combine high-speed photography and axisymmetric volume of fluid (VoF) simulations to quantitatively describe its role in enhancing the micro-jet dynamics within the directed jet regime (Zeng et al. , J. Fluid Mech. , vol. 896, 2020, A28). Upon a favourable agreement on the bubble and micro-jet dynamics, both experimental and simulation results indicate that the micro-jet velocity increases dramatically as η decreases, where η =H/Rₘₐₓ is the distance between two walls H normalized by the maximum bubble radius Rₘₐₓ . The mechanism is related to the collapsing flow, which is constrained by the distant wall into a reverse stagnation-point flow that builds up pressure near the bubble's top surface and accelerates it into micro-jets. We further derive an equation expressing the micro-jet velocity Uⱼₑₜ=87.94γ 0.5(1+(1/3)(η -λ 1.2)⁻²) , where γ =d/Rₘₐₓ is the stand-off distance to the proximal wall with d the distance between the initial bubble centre and the wall, λ =Ry,m/Rₘₐₓ with Ry,m the distance between the top surface and the proximal wall at the bubble's maximum expansion. Viscosity has a minimal impact on the jet velocity for small γ , where the pressure buildup is predominantly influenced by geometry.