Acoustic saturation in bubbly cavitating flow adjacent to an oscillating wall

Bubbly cavitating flow generated by the normal oscillation of a wall bounding a semi-infinite domain of fluid is computed using a continuum two-phase flow model. Bubble dynamics are computed, on the microscale, using the Rayleigh–Plesset equation. A Lagrangian finite volume scheme and implicit adaptive time marching are employed to accurately resolve bubbly shock waves and other steep gradients in the flow. The one-dimensional, unsteady computations show that when the wall oscillation frequency is much smaller than the bubble natural frequency, the power radiated away from the wall is limited by an acoustic saturation effect ~the radiated power becomes independent of the amplitude of vibration!, which is similar to that found in a pure gas. That is, for large enough vibration amplitude, nonlinear steepening of the generated waves leads to shocking of the wave train, and the dissipation associated with the jump conditions across each shock limits the radiated power. In the model, damping of the bubble volume oscillations is restricted to a simple ‘‘effective’’ viscosity. For wall oscillation frequency less than the bubble natural frequency, the saturation amplitude of the radiated field is nearly independent of any specific damping mechanism. Finally, implications for noise radiation from cavitating flows are discussed. © 2000 American Institute of Physics. @S1070-6631~00!00511-0#