Cavitation threshold pressure of focused ultrasound observed with sonochemiluminescence

Spatial distribution of sonochemiluminescence (SCL) from an argon-saturated luminol solution was measured in a focused sound field at 1 MHz in a standing-wave configuration. The SCL distribution was confined to pre-focal region at acoustic powers lower than 0.9 W, and was not located at the focus but at a few mm pre-focal side at a threshold for SCL inception. The threshold pressure amplitude for SCL inception was 3.6 atm at the focus, which value was obtained with a background-oriented schlieren method. The method is based on the broadening of multiple slits due to an optical deflection caused by ultrasound, and the broadening width measured provides an acoustic pressure amplitude. A qualitative image of the focused sound field was also obtained.

A Single-Camera Synthetic Schlieren Method for Measuring Two-Dimensional Liquid Surfaces

A single-camera synthetic Schlieren method is introduced here to measure two-dimensional topography and depth of dynamic free liquid surfaces. The method is simple and easy to implement. Because of light refraction (following Snell’s law), markers on a flat bottom which are seen through the surfaces of a transparent liquid are virtually displaced. This leads to a governing equation that the liquid surface depth (and its topography) is associated with the marker displacement. In the equation, the refractive index of the liquid (e.g. water) can be obtained by a refractometer (or from a technical reference), and the displacements of the markers can be obtained by a cross-correlation method which is usually used in particle image velocimetry. In the equation, the only unknown, the depth of the surface, can be obtained by solving the governing equation with boundary conditions. Unlike free-surface synthetic Schlieren (FS-SS) of Moisy et al. (Exp. Fluids, 1021, 46, 2009), our method does not require a reference depth (which is obtained before or after experiments), so that flows with temporally evolving depth can be measured. Experiments of liquid ripples and dam-break flows were performed to test the method. The results agree well with those obtained with FS-SS and visualization measurements.