Numerical analysis of bubble bursting at the liquid surface by wave propagation

Bubble bursting at the liquid surface can generate the jet drops and satellite bubbles, which is widely encountered in boiling, ocean engineering, bioengineering etc. This process is affected by quite a few parameters, such as surface capillarity, gravity, temperature, density, viscosity and bubble size. In this paper, the axisymmetric numerical model with level set method is built up to study the bubble bursting process. It is found that the bubble bursting process can be analyzed through the capillary wave propagation in terms of the tangential angle along the gas-liquid interface. The capillary wave propagation method can describe well the effect of Ohnesorge number, Marangoni number, density and viscosity ratios of gas over liquid on the bubble bursting. The critical Ohnesorge number for jet drop formation during bubble bursting with negligible gravity, gas inertia and viscosity is around 0.045, and it will decrease dramatically with increasing ratios of gas density or viscosity over liquid. The jet formation during bubble bursting can be suppressed by applying the negative temperature gradient across the bubble, or by increasing density and viscosity ratio of gas over liquid, mainly because they can damp the capillary waves. These findings may help get insight in the bubble bursting when the gas properties are transiting towards the liquid under pressurized atmosphere. © 2020 Elsevier Masson SAS