Nonlinear oscillations and collapse of elongated bubbles subject to weak viscous effects

Abstract

The weak viscous oscillations of a bubble are examined, in response to an elongation that perturbs the initial spherical shape at equilibrium. The flow field in the surrounding liquid is split in a rotational and an irrotational part. The latter satisfies the Laplacian and can be obtained via an integral equation. A hybrid boundary-finite element method is used in order to solve for the velocity potential and shape deformation of axisymmetric bubbles. Weak viscous effects are included in the computations by retaining first-order viscous terms in the normal stress boundary condition and satisfying the tangential stress balance. An extensive set of simulations was carried out until the bubble either returned to its initial spherical shape, or broke up. For a relatively small initial elongation the bubble returned to its initial spherical state regardless of the size of the Ohnesorge number; Oh=mu/(rho R sigma)(1/2). For larger initial elongations there is a threshold value in Oh(-1) above which the bubble eventually breaks up giving rise to a "donut" shaped larger bubble and a tiny satellite bubble occupying the region near the center of the original bubble. The latter is formed as the round ends of the liquid jets that approach each other from opposite sides along the axis of symmetry, coalesce. The size of the satellite bubble decreased as the initial elongation or Oh(-1) increased. This pattern persisted for a range of large initial deformations with a decreasing threshold value of the Oh(-1) as the initial deformation increased. As its equilibrium radius increases the bubble becomes more susceptible to the above collapse mode. The effect of initial bubble overpressure was also examined and it was seen that small initial overpressures, for the range of initial bubble deformations that was investigated, translate the threshold of Oh(-1) to larger values while at the same time increasing the size of the satellite bubble. (c) 2005 American Institute of Physics.