Restoring universality to the pinch-off of a bubble
Name
13780.full.pdf
Description
Published version
Size
1.29 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c6c39568d03c87c4b3c5d4ab09dedfdc
Author(s)
Pahlavan, Amir A.
McKinley, Gareth H.
Juanes, Ruben
Date Issued
June 17, 2019
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
Publisher
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Citation
Pahlavan, Amir A. et al. "Restoring universality to the pinch-off of a bubble." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 116 (2019): 13780–13784 © 2019 The Author(s)
Version
Final published version
Abstract
The pinch-off of a bubble is an example of the formation of a singularity, exhibiting a characteristic separation of length and time scales. Because of this scale separation, one expects universal dynamics that collapse into self-similar behavior determined by the relative importance of viscous, inertial, and capillary forces. Surprisingly, however, the pinch-off of a bubble in a large tank of viscous liquid is known to be nonuniversal. Here, we show that the pinch-off dynamics of a bubble confined in a capillary tube undergo a sequence of two distinct self-similar regimes, even though the entire evolution is controlled by a balance between viscous and capillary forces. We demonstrate that the early-time self-similar regime restores universality to bubble pinch-off by erasing the system’s memory of the initial conditions. Our findings have important implications for bubble/drop generation in microfluidic devices, with applications in inkjet printing, medical imaging, and synthesis of particulate materials.
Subjects
Multidisciplinary
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1819744116
