Technology Overview

Cavitation occurs when a liquid is exposed to rapid changes in pressure, causing the formation of gas or vapor bubbles in the lower pressure regions. Impulse creates inertial cavitation with the application of an acoustic field causing a standing wave in the liquid. With each cycle of the standing wave, the bubbles first grow in size and then rapidly collapse, producing a shock wave and often visible light, or sonoluminesence (SL). As the bubbles shrink, the pressure and temperature of the vapor increase, reaching their maximum upon bubble collapse. Impulse has been able to exploit these dramatic effects by producing inertial cavitation in proprietary high-static-pressure spheres. At the moment of collapse, depending upon the liquid medium and the applied static pressure, the temperature and pressure of the gas inside the cavities can exceed even the extreme conditions on the surface of the sun.