Hydrodynamic cavitation is one of the major phase change phenomena and occurs with a sudden decrease in the local static pressure within a fluid. With the emergence of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), high-speed microfluidic devices have attracted considerable attention and been implemented in many fields, including cavitation applications. In this study, a new generation of ‘cavitation-on-a-chip’ devices with eight parallel structured microchannels is proposed. This new device is designed with the motivation of decreasing the upstream pressure (input energy) required for facile hydrodynamic cavitation inception. Water and a poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) microbubble (MB) suspension are used as the working fluids. The results show that the cavitation inception upstream pressure can be reduced with the proposed device in comparison with previous studies with a single flow restrictive element. Furthermore, using PVA MBs further results in a reduction in the upstream pressure required for cavitation inception. In this new device, different cavitating flow patterns with various intensities can be observed at a constant cavitation number and fixed upstream pressure within the same device. Moreover, cavitating flows intensify faster in the proposed device for both water and the water–PVA MB suspension in comparison to previous studies. Due to these features, this next-generation ‘cavitation-on-a-chip’ device has a high potential for implementation in applications involving microfluidic/organ-on-a-chip devices, such as integrated drug release and tissue engineering.

水动力空化是主要的相变现象之一，随着流体内局部静压的突然降低而发生。随着微机电系统（MEMS）的出现，高速微流控器件引起了人们的广泛关注，并在包括空化应用在内的许多领域得到了应用。在这项研究中，提出了具有八个并行结构微通道的新一代“芯片空化”装置。这种新装置的设计目的是降低容易发生水动力空化所需的上游压力（输入能量）。水和聚乙烯醇（PVA）微泡（MB）悬浮液用作工作流体。结果表明，与之前使用单个限流元件的研究相比，所提出的装置可以降低空化起始上游压力。此外，使用 PVA MB 进一步降低了空化开始所需的上游压力。在这种新装置中，在同一装置内恒定的空化数和固定的上游压力下，可以观察到不同强度的不同空化流模式。此外，与之前的研究相比，在所提出的水和水-PVA MB 悬浮液装置中，空化流增强得更快。由于这些特性，这种下一代“芯片上空化”设备在涉及微流体/芯片上器官设备的应用中具有很高的应用潜力，例如集成药物释放和组织工程。