Influence of distribution parameters on acoustic radiation from bubble clusters

Cavitation noise is the major noise in underwater, and the study of acoustic radiation from bubble clusters is the primary means to reveal the mechanism of cavitation noise. In this study, direct numerical simulation (DNS) of bubble clusters with volume fractions of 20–40 % with different bubble sizes and bubble position distributions are performed, and the far-field sound pressure is calculated using the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings (FW-H) method. Then, we compare the collapse and acoustic radiation of bubble clusters with equivalent bubble. The results show that the collapse times of bubble clusters at the same volume fraction are identical and close to equivalent bubble, despite the different bubble sizes and positions in the bubble cluster. Further, in terms of acoustic radiation, the layered arrangement of bubble positions results in bubble clusters exhibiting layer-by-layer collapse and emitting multiple sound pressure pulses. In contrast, a random arrangement of bubble positions lacks this feature, resulting in the collapse of the bubble cluster without a layered phenomenon and radiating only a single primary sound pulse, which is consistent with the equivalent bubble. Additionally, the distribution of bubble sizes in the bubble cluster has almost no effect on the acoustic radiation of the bubble cluster. Notably, when the volumetric fraction exceeds 25 %, the sound pressure levels of bubble clusters with different distributions in the frequency domain are nearly identical, with differences from the equivalent bubble within 5 dB.