Chaotic behavior in acoustic cavitation

Acoustic cavitation is produced inside a piezoelectric cylinder in water. The onset of acoustic cavitation noise when the sound pressure amplitude is increased is studied with the new methods from nonlinear dynamics (nonlinear time series analysis). Strange attractors of low fractal dimension and Lyapunov spectra with just one positive Lyapunov exponent are found. The cavitation bubble field is also visualized holographically. The results confirm the idea of subharmonic and chaotic bubble oscillations as the cause of subharmonic and chaotic sound emission