The motion of buoyant transient cavities with non-condensible contents is investigated numerically using a boundary-integral method. The bubble contents are described by an adiabatic gas law. Motion is considered in the neighbourhood of a rigid boundary, in an axisymmetric geometry. We investigate whether the non-condensible contents will resist the formation of jets. It is found that jets form upon collapse and, in general, completely penetrate the bubble before it rebounds, but circumstances are identified under which the non-spherical bubble will rebound prior to this occurrence. In these cases the bulk of the jet growth occurs upon rebound. Furthermore, the interaction between the buoyancy force causing jet formation upwards, and the Bjerknes attraction of the rigid boundary causing jet formation towards it, is investigated and general principles discussed which allow the behaviour to be interpreted. The concept of the Kelvin impulse is utilized.

In oil reservoirs, the less-dense oil often lies over a layer of water. When pumping begins, the oil-water interface rises near the well, due to the suction pressures associated with the well. A boundary-integral formulation is used to predict the steady interface shape, when the oil well is approximated by a series of sources and sinks or a line sink, to simulate the actual geometry of the oil well. It is found that there is a critical pumping rate, above which the water enters the oil well. The critical interface shape is a cusp. Efforts to suppress the cone by using source/sink combinations are presented.

Approximate methods are developed for modelling the growth and collapse of clouds of cavitation bubbles near an infinite and semi-infinite rigid boundary, a cylinder, between two flat plates and in corners and near edges formed by planar boundaries. Where appropriate, comparisons are made between this approximate method and the more accurate boundary integral methods used in earlier calculations. It is found that the influence of nearby bubbles can be more important than the presence of boundaries. In confined geometries, such as a cylinder, or a cloud of bubbles, the effect of the volume change due to growth or collapse of the bubble can be important at much larger distances. The method provides valuable insight into bubble cloud phenomena.

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