Bubbles and acoustic cavitation play an important role in many aspects of application of sonic and ultrasonic energy in fluids and biological tissue. This course will introduce the study of bubble phenomena in sound fields. The fundamental physical acoustics of bubbles (and the fundamental physics which can be illustrated by the study of bubble dynamics) will be stressed. The family of Rayleigh-Plesset equations for time-dependent bubble behavior will be derived from the Navier-Stokes equations. Analytical approximations to the Rayleigh-Plesset equations in limiting cases will be derived and studied. Approximations to the thermodynamic behavior of oscillating bubbles will be considered in detail. Thermal, acoustic and viscous contributions to dissipation will be treated. Numerical solutions will also be studied, specifically in the context of highly nonlinear behavior during acoustically-forced oscillations. Specific experiments, and experimental techniques for measuring bubble dynamics will be studied in detail. Topics covered will contrast agent microbubbles, acoustics of bubbly liquids, bubble-mediated bioeffects, shape instabilities, acoustic levitation, sonoluminescence, heat and mass transfer during bubble oscillations, sonochemistry and cavitation detection and monitoring.

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