Experimental observations of the interaction of a laser generated cavitation bubble with a flexible membrane

In this paper we present new observations of a laser generated cavitation bubble interacting with an inertial boundary. Employing schlieren photography and Mach-Zehnder interferometry techniques, we present photographic sequences of a cavity interacting with a flexible membrane. During expansion the membrane is deformed away from the bubble centroid but during the collapse phase, instead of moving with the expected fluid motion caused by the contracting bubble, the flexible membrane introduces a certain asymmetry into the problem which in turn results in novel fluid motions around the bubble.