2023/10/25 by Xinghua Jiang, Lucas Rotily, Jiang, Xinghua +5 · 2 citations
Engineering · Environmental Science · #Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer #Oil Spill Detection and Mitigation #Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2310.16551
openalex publication_date 2023/10/25 · openalex created_date 2023/10/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Bubble bursting on water surfaces is believed to be a main mechanism to produce submicron drops, including sea spray aerosols, which play a critical role in forming cloud and transferring various biological and chemical substances from water to the air. Over the past century, drops production mechanisms from bubble bursting have been extensively studied. They usually involve the centrifugal fragmentation of liquid ligaments from the bubble cap during film rupture, the flapping of the cap film, and the disintegration of Worthington jets after cavity collapse. Here, we show that a dominant fraction of previously identified as 'bubble bursting' submicron drops are in fact generated via a new mechanism underwater, inside the bubbles themselves before they have reached the surface. These drops are then carried within the rising bubbles towards the water surface and are released in air at bubble bursting. Evidence suggests that these drops originate from the flapping instability of the film squeezed between underwater colliding bubbles. This finding fundamentally reshapes our understanding of sea spray aerosol production and establishes a new role for underwater bubble collisions regarding the nature of transfers through water-air interfaces.