Using cavitation to measure statistics of low-pressure events in large-Reynolds-number turbulence

The structure of the pressure field of a turbulent water flow between counter-rotating disks is studied using cavitation. The flow is seeded with microscopic gas bubbles and the hydrostatic pressure is reduced until large negative pressure fluctuations trigger cavitation. Cavitation is detected via light scattering from cavitating bubbles. The spatial structure of the low-pressure events are visualized using a high-speed video system. A fast photo detector is used to measure the scaling of the cavitation statistics with the pressure. This data is used to determine the shape of the tail of the probability density function for the pressure. The tail is found to be exponential and scales more rapidly with Reynolds number than the standard deviation of the pressure. This may indicate the influence of internal intermittency. (C) 2000 American Institute of Physics. [S1070-6631(00)01106-5].