Abstract:
The lung and other organs with high gas content tend to be the most susceptible to damage by lithotripter shock waves. Since the gas volume is large, the damage processes most likely differ from traditional cavitation mechanisms. A finite volume model has previously been developed to investigate the interaction of shock waves with single, isolated bubbles. This model has been modified to explore other possible mechanisms of lung tissue damage. In the model, the single bubble is replaced with a layer of cylindrical bubbles, and a shock wave is incident normal to this bubble layer. The affect of bubble spacing on the shock wave propagation through the layer and the resulting bubble dynamics is determined.