Influence of the bubble-bubble interaction on destruction of encapsulated microbubbles under ultrasound

Influence of the bubble-bubble interaction on the pulsation of encapsulated microbubbles has been studied by numerical simulations under the condition of the experiment reported by Chang et at. [IEEE Trans. Ultrason Ferroelectr. Freq. Control 48, 161 (2001)]. It has been shown that the natural (resonance) frequency of a microbubble decreases considerably as the microbubble concentration increases to relatively high concentrations. At some concentration, the natural frequency may coincide with the driving frequency. Microbubble pulsation becomes milder as the microbubble concentration increases except at around the resonance condition due to the stronger bubble-bubble interaction. This may be one of the reasons why the threshold of acoustic pressure for destruction of an encapsulated microbubble increases as the microbubble concentration increases. A theoretical model for destruction has been proposed. (C) 2009 Acoustical Society of America. [DOI: 10.1121/1.3179677]