Cavitation can be defined as the breakdown of a liquid (either static or in motion) medium under very low pressure. The hydrodynamic happened in high-speed flow, where local pressure in liquid falls under the saturating pressure thus the liquid vaporizes to form the cavity. During the evolution and collapsing of cavitation bubbles, extreme physical conditions like high-temperature, high-pressure, shock-wave, and high-speed micro-jets can be generated. Such a phenomenon shall be prevented in hydraulic or astronautical machinery due to the induced erosion and noise, while it can be utilized to intensify some treatment processes of chemical, food, and pharmaceutical industries, to shorten sterilization times and lower energy consumption. Advances in the understanding of the physical processes of cavitating flows are challenging, mainly due to the lack of quantitative experimental data on the two-phase structures and dynamics inside the opaque cavitation areas. This dissertation is aimed at finding out the physical mechanisms governing the cavitation instabilities and making contributions in controlling hydraulic cavitation for engineering applications. In this thesis, cavitation developed in various convergent-divergent (Venturi) channels was studied experimentally using the ultra-fast synchrotron X-ray imaging, LIF Particle Image Velocimetry, and high-speed photography techniques, to (1) investigate the internal structures and evolution of bubble dynamics in cavitating flows, with velocity information obtained for two phases; (2) measure the slip velocity between the liquid and the vapor to provide the validation data for the numerical cavitation models; (3) consider the thermodynamic effects of cavitation to establish the relation between the cavitation extent and the fluid temperature, then and optimize the cavitation working condition in water; (4) seek the coherent structures of the complicated high-turbulent cavitating flow to reduce its randomness using data-driven methods. / Doctor of Philosophy / When the pressure of a liquid is below its saturation pressure, the liquid will be vaporized into vapor bubbles which can be called cavitation. In many hydraulic machines like pumps, propulsion systems, internal combustion engines, and rocket engines, this phenomenon is quite common and could induce damages to the mechanical systems. To understand the mechanisms and further control cavitation, investigation of the bubble inception, deformation, collapse, and flow regime change is mandatory. Here, we performed the fluid mechanics experiment to study the unsteady cavitating flow underlying physics as it occurs past the throat of a Venturi nozzle. Due to the opaqueness of this two-phase flow, an X-ray imaging technique is applied to visualize the internal flow structures in micrometer scales with minor beam scattering. Finally, we provided the latest physical model to explain the different regimes that appear in cavitation. The relationship between the cavitation length and its shedding regimes, and the dominant mechanism governing the transition of regimes are described. A combined suppression parameter is developed and can be used to enhance or suppress the cavitation intensity considering the influence of temperature.