Experimental study of convective self-oscillations near the lateral surface of a bubble in a plane rectangular channel

Experimental investigations have been performed to study solutal convection around an air bubble squeezed between the walls of a horizontal rectangular channel, filled by an aqueous solution of surfactant with vertically stratified concentration. A convective motion in the fluid develops due to the solutocapillary Marangoni forces at the bubble lateral free surface. The structure and evolution of the convective flow and the surfactant concentration fields in the channel have been investigated using interferometric technique. The tests revealed the development of self-oscillatory modes near the bubble surface, related to the interaction between solutocapillary and solutogravitational motion mechanisms. The time dependences of the oscillations period are analyzed in relation to the average concentration of the solution, the surfactant concentration gradient, and the values of Marangoni and Grashof numbers. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.