A novel wake structure, observed as penny-shaped air bubbles rise at moderate Reynolds number through a thin layer of water bound between parallel glass plates inclined at a shallow angle relative to the horizontal, is reported. The structure of the wake is revealed through tracking particles suspended in the water. The wake completely encircles the rising bubble, and is characterized by a reverse surface flow or ‘edge jet’ which transports fluid in a thin boundary layer along the bubble surface from the tail to the nose at speeds which are typically an order of magnitude larger than the bubble rise speed. A consistent physical explanation for the wake structure is proposed. The wake is revealed to be a manifestation of the three-dimensionality of the flow in the suspending fluid. The bubble surface advances through a rolling motion, thus generating regions of surface divergence and convergence at, respectively, the leading and trailing edges of the bubble. A nose-to-tail gradient in surfactant concentration is thus established, and the associated surface tension gradient drives the edge jet. The dependence of the wake structure on the suspending fluid is examined experimentally.

Surfactants play an anomalous role in the reported flow, serving to promote rather than suppress surface motions. The wake structure is an example of a mechanically forced Marangoni flow, and so represents a mechanical analogue of that accompanying thermocapillary drop motion in microgravity. A theoretical model is developed which reproduces the salient features of the flow, and on the basis of which an estimate is made of the mechanically induced surface tension gradient along the bubble surface.