Nanobubble collapse on a silica surface in water: billion-atom reactive molecular dynamics simulations.
Cavitation bubbles occur in fluids subjected to rapid changes in pressure. We use billion-atom reactive molecular dynamics simulations on a 163,840-processor BlueGene/P supercomputer to investigate damage caused by shock-induced collapse of nanobubbles in water near an amorphous silica surface. Collapse of an empty bubble generates a high-speed nanojet, which causes pitting on the silica surface. We find pit radii are close to bubble radii, and experiments also indicate linear scaling between them. The gas-filled bubbles undergo partial collapse and, consequently, the damage on the silica surface is mitigated.
Collaboratory for Advanced Computing and Simulations, Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Department of Physics and Astronomy, and Department of Computer Science, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0242, USA.
Adarsh
A
Shekhar
Ken-ichi
K
Nomura
Rajiv K
RK
Kalia
Aiichiro
A
Nakano
Priya
P
Vashishta