2009/04/15 by Stephan Gekle, Devaraj van der Meer, Jacco H. Snoeijer +1 · 51 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Body orifice #Bubble #Classical mechanics #Condensed matter physics #Fluid Dynamics Simulations and Interactions #Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer #Inviscid flow #Mechanics #Millisecond #Nuclear physics #Physics #Pinch #Quantum mechanics #Rotational symmetry #Surface Modification and Superhydrophobicity #Universality (dynamical systems) #Wake #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.80.036305
published in Physical Review E 80(3), 036305 (American Physical Society)
arxiv created 2009/04/15 · openalex publication_date 2009/09/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The pinch-off of an axisymmetric air bubble surrounded by an inviscid fluid is compared in four physical realizations: (i) cavity collapse in the wake of an impacting disk, (ii) gas bubbles injected through a small orifice, (iii) bubble rupture in a straining flow, and (iv) a bubble with an initially necked shape. Our boundary-integral simulations suggest that all systems eventually follow the universal behavior characterized by slowly varying exponents predicted by J. Eggers [Phys. Rev. Lett. 98, 094502 (2007)]. However, the time scale for the onset of this final regime is found to vary by orders of magnitude depending on the system in question. While for the impacting disk it is well in the millisecond range, for the gas injection needle universal behavior sets in only a few microseconds before pinch-off. These findings reconcile the different views expressed in recent literature about the universal nature of bubble pinch-off.