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Ageing and burst of surface bubbles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 July 2018

S. Poulain ,
E. Villermaux  and
L. Bourouiba Open the ORCID record for L. Bourouiba [Opens in a new window]
S. Poulain
Affiliation:
The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
E. Villermaux
Affiliation:
Aix Marseille Université, CNRS, Centrale Marseille, IRPHE UMR 7342, 13384 Marseille, France Institut Universitaire de France, Paris, France
L. Bourouiba*
Affiliation:
The Fluid Dynamics of Disease Transmission Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: lbouro@mit.edu
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Abstract

Upon burst, surface bubbles transfer biological and chemical material from water bodies to the air we breathe via the production of droplets. An understanding of what shapes the size and payload of such droplets starts by understanding the fundamental physics of bubble birth, drainage and burst. Our combined experimental and theoretical investigation focuses on film-drop-producing surface bubbles. Controlling fluid properties such as temperature, salinity and volatility, coupled with changes of ambient air saturation, we elucidate the ageing and lifetime of bubbles. We derive and validate a generalized bubble cap drainage model accounting for both curvature-pressure-induced drainage and Marangoni flows induced by the coupling between the bubble and its surrounding air. We show that this deterministic drainage is coupled with stochastic local perturbations, both intrinsic and extrinsic, from impacts by mist droplets to microbubbles. We derive the conditions for such perturbations to be lethal to the cap film, involving the competition of mixing and drainage time scales on the bubble, the film thickness, the size of the perturbation and the local Marangoni stresses introduced. We explain how the mixing dynamics on the cap ensures that bursts mostly occur at the foot of bubbles rather than on their cap. Our study sheds light on the coupling between the deterministic cap thinning and the stochastic events leading to bubble death. We conclude that ubiquitous water contaminants enable the birth of a bubble, sustain it through its ageing, but ultimately also kill it.

JFM classification

Drops and Bubbles: Drops and Bubbles Interfacial Flows (free surface): Interfacial Flows (free surface) Convection: Marangoni convection
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 851 , 25 September 2018 , pp. 636 - 671
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Copyright
© 2018 Cambridge University Press 

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