Translational instability of a spherical bubble in a standing ultrasound wave

Translational bubble dynamics is much less studied than the dynamics of radial bubble oscillation, while in many scientific and engineering applications the control of space location of cavitation bubbles is of great practical importance. This paper aims at the theoretical study of various aspects of the translational motion of a spherical gas bubble in a high-frequency standing wave. in particular, it is shown that the translational instability that gives rise to the reciprocal translation of a spherical bubble between the pressure antinode and the pressure node is caused by the hysteresis in the main resonance of the bubble. Different types of translational trajectories that can occur in a standing wave are illustrated by numerical simulations. A general classification of the observed translational trajectories is proposed. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.