Associate Professor LI Shuai from the College of Shipbuilding Engineering has been awarded the 2024 Munk-Foulston Best Paper Award for his research paper titled "Cavitation Bubble Dynamics Inside a Droplet Suspended in a Different Host Fluid." The award recognizes outstanding innovations and technological advancements in the fields of structural mechanics and hydrodynamics related to ships and marine structures. Each year, one exceptional paper in each of these fields is selected globally.
The paper was published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics, one of the leading journals in fluid mechanics. The Fluid-Structure Interaction Research Team at the College of Shipbuilding Engineering has received this prestigious award for four consecutive years since 2021.
In recent years, the dynamics of cavitation bubbles within multiphase fluid systems have become a prominent area of research. The findings in this field hold significant potential for applications across various industries, including advanced manufacturing, explosive dredging, droplet atomization, ultrasonic cleaning, ultrasonic emulsification, targeted therapy, and food processing. However, the complexity of multiphase interface behavior, the challenge of observing cross-scale processes, and the difficulties in multi-physics coupling theory and numerical simulation present significant obstacles to further advancements. Overcoming these challenges requires a multidisciplinary approach that combines experimental observation, theoretical modeling, and numerical simulation.
This study provides a comprehensive investigation into the cavitation dynamics within water-oil systems, integrating theoretical analysis, experimental research, and numerical simulation. The research developed a theoretical solution for the Rayleigh collapse time and natural frequency of bubbles, accounting for both the fluid density ratio and the geometric size ratio of bubbles and droplets in multiphase systems. This approach broadens the application of traditional bubble dynamics theory, which has typically been limited to single-phase fluids. The insights gained from these material transport mechanisms, triggered by cavitation, offer a new physical perspective and serve as a foundational research base for both bubble dynamics and multiphase fluid dynamics. These advancements are significant for both theoretical development and practical applications in related fields.
