Bubbly cavitating flow generation and investigation of its erosional nature for biomedical applications

Abstract

The paper presents a study of the generation of hydrodynamic bubbly cavitation in microchannels to investigate the destructive energy output resulting from this phenomenon and its potential use in biomedical applications. The research performed in this study includes the experimental results from bubbly cavitation experiments and the findings showing the destructive effects of bubbly cavitating flow on selected specimens and cells. The bubbles caused by hydrodynamic cavitation are highly destructive at the surfaces of the target medium on which they are carefully focused. The resulting destructive energy output could be effectively used for good means such as destroying kidney stones or killing infected cancer cells. Motivated by this potential, the cavitation damage (material removal) to cancerous cells and chalk pieces having similar material properties as calcium phosphate in human bones was investigated. Also the potential of hydrodynamic bubbly cavitation generated at the microscale for biomedical treatments was revealed using the microchannel configuration of a microorifice (with an inner diameter of 0.147 mm and a length of 1.52cm).