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We reveal for the first time by experiments that within a narrow parameter regime, two cavitation bubbles
with identical energy generated in antiphase develop a supersonic jet. High-resolution numerical simulation
shows a mechanism for jet amplification based on toroidal shock wave and bubble necking interaction. The
microjet reaches velocities in excess of 1000 m s−1 . We demonstrate that potential flow theory established
for Worthington jets accurately predicts the evolution of the bubble gas-liquid interfaces unifying
compressible and incompressible jet amplification.
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.104004
Introduction.—Liquid jets are encountered in various experiments with simulations by varying the distance and
physical scenarios of collapsing cavities in liquids. Often the time interval between bubble generation. They and
jets are initiated by the collapse of conical or axisymmetric others have shown that the generation of similarly sized
parabolic cavities [1,2], e.g., by bubbles bursting near a free bubble pairs in antiphase, i.e., the second bubble is
surface [1,3–6], collapsing depressions of standing waves [7], generated when the first bubble is at maximum size, results
the impact of water droplets on hydrophobic surfaces [8], or in fast jets [13,19,21–27], where jet velocities inside the
the impact of solids on a free surface [9–11]. In those cavitation bubble of Oð100Þ m s−1 are reached [21,26,27].
scenarios, the cavity collapse leads to impressive amplifica- Focusing on the identical antiphase bubble pair situation, in
tions of the jet velocity compared to their initiation mecha- this Letter, we demonstrate experimentally and numerically
nism, where the jet velocity varies from low subsonic [7–10] that at a proper distance, the bubble pair can accelerate a
to supersonic states [11]. The enhancement of such energy- needle-type jet an order of magnitude faster than formerly
focusing mechanisms through the utilization of single or reported. It resembles the needle jet found in cavitation
multiple cavities is of great importance, e.g., for alternative erosion studies and at elastic boundaries, yet it does not
medical therapies of needle-based injections [12] or soft atomize but stably penetrate the gas-liquid interface.
material perforation [13], where stable jets with high veloc- Experimental and numerical setup.—In this study, we
ities and small volume are desired. Recently, high-speed focus on the antiphase dynamics of bubble pairs with
liquid jets have been found during the evolution of single identical maximum radius, R1;max ¼ R2;max ¼ Rmax . Here,
cavitation bubbles close to boundaries [14–17], where radial Ri;max are the maximum radii each bubble would reach
inward rushing liquid toward the symmetry axis induces independently, i.e., without the neighboring bubble. We
a singularity and corresponding supersonic needle jets. control antiphase dynamics by initiating the second bubble
However, the existence of supersonic jets during the inter- at ΔT ¼ T 1;max ¼ T 2;max ¼ T max , where T i;max is the time
action of multiple cavitation bubbles has not been reported when the bubble reaches its maximum size. The remaining
so far. variable parameter is the bubble seeding distance D0 , which
To reveal the interaction of bubbles experimentally, reads in nondimensional form γ ¼ D0 =ð2Rmax Þ.
we reduce the complexity to the most simple problem In the experiments, two bubbles are generated in
and study the dynamics of a single bubble pair. These have deionized (DI) water through optical breakdown from
been investigated previously on different small and large two pulsed lasers (Litron Nano T-250-10; wavelength
scales [13,18–20]. Han et al. [21] systematically compared 1064 nm; pulse duration FWHM ¼ 7 ns, and Litron
FIG. 1. High-speed images and comparison between simulation and experiment in the ultrafast needle jet regime for a nondimensional
standoff distance of γ ≈ 0.75. (a) Schematic representation of the camera view of the experimental setup and the initial bubble sizes in
the simulation. The upper bubble is generated first, and after t ¼ ΔT ≈ 46 μs, the second lower bubble is initiated. All lengths are not
drawn to scale. (b)–(j) High-speed side-view dynamics of the experiment (left half of each image) and visualization of numerical
Schlieren in the simulation (right half of each image). Note that experimental shadowgraphs show a bubble projection while the
simulation shows a plane cutting the bubble, revealing more details of the bubble shape. Time instances are given in the lower corner of
each image, where t ¼ 0 μs corresponds to the time of the torus collapse of the first bubble. In (j) a detailed view on the neck collapse
between (e) and (f) is shown. In (f) the red dot marks the position of the neck collapse on the symmetry axis (NC), and the white arrows
indicate the position of the neck-collapse shock front (NCSF).
Nano SG-100-2; 1064 nm; FWHM ¼ 6 ns). The water is species diffusion, gravity, and heat exchange. A conservative
contained in a cuboid optical glass cuvette with squared sharp-interface level-set method captures the interface
cross section of side length of 2 cm and a height of 5 cm between the cavitation bubble and the surrounding liquid.
[Fig. 1(a)]. Two long working distance microscope objec- Computational costs are reduced by employing a multi-
tives facing each other focus the laser pulses. The objective resolution scheme with timestep adaptivity and a three-
lenses are mounted on three-axis micrometer stages to align dimensional axisymmetric domain. We model the bubble
the foci in the imaging plane and control the distance content by a single noncondensable ideal gas, and the
between the two bubbles. The dynamics of the bubbles are surrounding water follows the Tait equation of state [16].
recorded with a high-speed camera (Shimadzu XPV-X2) at Bubble dynamics are represented by initial high-energetic
2 × 106 frames per second equipped with a macro lens spherical bubbles (R0 ≈ 20 μm, p0 ¼ 11 000 bar) that
(MP-E 65 mm f/2.8 1-5x Macro) with its magnification set expand into water at rest [Fig. 1(a)]. We obtain initial
to a fixed pixel resolution of 7 μm per pixel. The effective conditions for every initiation by matching the dynamics
exposure time is 220 fs using an expanded pulse train from of a single cavitation bubble in the experiments (see
a femtosecond laser beam that illuminates the scene Supplemental Material [31]). Phase-change effects are taken
(Ekspla Femtolux, wavelength 515 nm). into account by reducing the equilibrium radius of the first
We compare the experimental bubble dynamics with high- initiated bubble by 65% at its maximum [32,33]. This
resolution direct numerical simulations. We employ the open- reduction rate is based on comparison of single cavitation
source code framework ALPACA [28–30], which solves the bubble evolution in the free field between simulation and
compressible three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations, experiment (see Supplemental Material [31]). The reduction
including viscous and capillary effects, by a Godunov-type of the equilibrium radius effectively enhances the intensity
flux-based high-order finite-volume formulation. We neglect of the bubble collapse. The mesh size in the simulation is
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PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 132, 104004 (2024)
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PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 132, 104004 (2024)
the symmetry axis strong water-hammer shock waves are the neck is mainly radial [Fig. 2(c)]. The results in Fig. 3
emitted [Fig. 2(d)]. Finally, this high pressure region drives and in the Supplemental Material [31] show that the radial
the flow upward and downward in the axial direction, flow rate per unit length, induced at the instant when the
forming the ultrafast needle jet [Fig. 2(e)]. The supersonic torus collapses, decreases very slowly (logarithmically),
velocity of the collapsing neck causes a conical shock wave fixing the value of the flow rate per unit length, q∞ ,
to form inside the bubble shortly after the neck breakup driving the ejection of the jet [1]. Indeed, Gordillo and
[Fig. 2(e)]. The shock cone half-angle is measured as 16°, Blanco-Rodríguez [1] show that the time evolutions
implying a jet velocity of about 3.6× the speed of sound of of the jet width, rb , and the jet vertical position, zb , after
the bubble content. emission from an implosion of parabolic cavities are,
To further explain the mechanisms inducing the ultrafast respectively, given by rb ∝ ðq3∞ ðt − tnc Þ3 =r2c Þ1=4, and
needle jet, Fig. 3 shows the temporal evolution of the zb ∝ ðq∞ ðt − tnc Þr2c Þ1=4 . These predictions are confirmed
nondimensional neck radius, rn =rn;tc , where rn;tc is the neck by the experimental and numerical results depicted in
radius at torus collapse. The experimental data are given for Fig. 4, which exhibit the same dependence with time after
different nondimensional standoff distances within the a short transient. Interestingly, the results in Fig. 4 also
γ ∈ ½0.72; 0.79 range. We identify two regimes: a weak reveal that Worthington jets produced by the incompress-
contraction regime, t < 0, where the neck reduces propor- ible collapse of parabolic cavities induced after solid
tional by to t1=3
, and a shock-accelerated regime, t > 0. impact on a free surface [10,35] show the same time
Before the torus collapse, the flow field is partly tangential dependence as the compressible jets produced after the
to the neck interface, reducing the radial contraction rate of cavitation of bubbles. This finding can be explained by
the neck [Fig. 2(a)]. After the impact of the torus shock the fact that the velocity field created by an acoustic
wave and the impulsive acceleration of the neck, the neck monopole at a distance r ≪ a∞ ðt − tnc Þ, where a∞
radius reduces with an increased averaged slope, which represents the speed of sound in the liquid, closely
agrees well with the analytical model in [34] and references resembles the one of an incompressible sink.
therein for the collapse of a parabolic cavity. We observe the formation of the ultrafast needle jet only
As initial conditions, the simulated values of the neck in a narrow range of standoff distances, γ ∈ ½0.7; 0.8 (see
radius, rn , the neck velocity, ṙn , and the radius of curvature Supplemental Material [31]). For larger standoff distances,
of the neck, rc , are taken at t ≈ 0.5, where the inflow on γ > 0.8, the elongated neck of the second bubble does not
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PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 132, 104004 (2024)
*
pierce the first bubble, which prevents the impact of the Corresponding author: claus-dieter.ohl@ovgu.de
torus shock wave on the neck and, consequently, a radial [1] J. M. Gordillo and F. J. Blanco-Rodríguez, Theory of the
neck contraction. For smaller standoff distances, γ < 0.7, jets ejected after the inertial collapse of cavities with
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Funding by the German Research Foundation (DFG Fluids 4, 021601 (2019).
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the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing e.V. for funding [16] A. Bußmann, F. Riahi, B. Gökce, S. Adami, S. Barcikowski,
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