Shape stability and violent collapse of microbubbles in acoustic traveling waves

Acoustically driven bubbles can develop shape instabilities and, if forced sufficiently strongly, distort greatly and break up. Perturbation theory provides some insight as to how these nonspherical shape modes grow initially but loses validity for large deformations. To validate the perturbation theory, we use a numerical model based on the boundary integral method capable of simulating nonspherical, axisymmetric bubbles subject to acoustic driving. The results show that the perturbation theory compares well with numerical simulations in predicting bubble breakup and stability. Thereafter, we compare the peak temperatures and pressures of spherical to nonspherical bubble collapses by forcing them with standing waves and traveling waves, respectively. This comparison is made in parameter ranges of relevance to both single bubble sonoluminescence and multibubble sonoluminescence and sonochemistry. At moderate forcing, spherical and nonspherical collapses achieve similar peak temperatures and pressures but, as the forcing is increased, spherical collapses become much more intense. The reduced temperature of nonspherical collapses at high forcing is due to residual kinetic energy of a liquid jet that pierces the bubble near the time of minimum volume. This is clarified by a calculation of the (gas) thermal equivalent of this liquid kinetic energy.