gatorfan6908
Petty Officer 2nd Class
- Joined
- May 17, 2010
- Messages
- 149
Just wanted to pass along this photo and some info I found dealing with cavitation...
When liquid (say, water) is subjected to rapid extreme pressure change, small liquid-free zones (bubbles) can form in it. It's not the same thing as boiling, but close enough for our purposes. This phenomenon is called cavitation and is such a violent event that it can easily damage metal over time, which is why scientists in the field of fluid dynamics are trying their best to eliminate cavitation. You may have heard of this phenomenon before, in relation with the pistol shrimp and his 1, 2, 3, DEATH claw attack...
The point of this is that when a cavitation bubble collapses, it's not just a very loud event (pistol shrimp can interfere with submarines' sonar because of it), and extremely hot (with values given from 5000K up to 50000K) but also an extremely short (0.0000000001s).
Just a little bit of science for those who don't fully understand cavitation...

When liquid (say, water) is subjected to rapid extreme pressure change, small liquid-free zones (bubbles) can form in it. It's not the same thing as boiling, but close enough for our purposes. This phenomenon is called cavitation and is such a violent event that it can easily damage metal over time, which is why scientists in the field of fluid dynamics are trying their best to eliminate cavitation. You may have heard of this phenomenon before, in relation with the pistol shrimp and his 1, 2, 3, DEATH claw attack...
The point of this is that when a cavitation bubble collapses, it's not just a very loud event (pistol shrimp can interfere with submarines' sonar because of it), and extremely hot (with values given from 5000K up to 50000K) but also an extremely short (0.0000000001s).
Just a little bit of science for those who don't fully understand cavitation...