Dynamics of gas bubbles in viscoelastic fluids. I. Linear viscoelasticity

The nonlinear oscillations of spherical gas bubbles in linear viscoelastic fluids are studied. A novel approach is implemented to derive a governing system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations. The linear Maxwell and Jeffreys models are chosen as the fluid constitutive equations. An advantage of this new formulation is that, when compared with previous approaches, it facilitates perturbation methods and numerical investigations. Analytical solutions are obtained using a multiple scale perturbation method and compared with the Newtonian results for various Deborah numbers. Numerical analysis of the full equations supports the perturbation analysis, and further reveals significant differences between the viscoelastic and Newtonian cases. Differences in the oscillation phase and harmonic structure characterize some of the viscoelastic effects. Subharmonic excitations at particular fluid parameters lead to a discrete group modulation of the radial excursions; this appears to be a unique, previously undiscovered phenomenon. Implications for medical ultrasound applications are discussed in light of these current findings.     

Shape stability of a gas bubble in a soft solid

Predicting the onset of non-spherical oscillations of bubbles in soft matter is a fundamental cavitation problem with implications to sonoprocessing, polymeric materials synthesis, and biomedical ultrasound applications. The shape stability of a bubble in a Kelvin-Voigt viscoelastic medium with nonlinear elasticity, the simplest constitutive model for soft solids, is analytically investigated and compared to experiments. Using perturbation methods, we develop a model reducing the equations of motion to two sets of evolution equations: a Rayleigh-Plesset-type equation for the mean (volume-equivalent) bubble radius and an equation for the non-spherical mode amplitudes. Parametric instability is predicted by examining the natural frequency and the Mathieu equation for the non-spherical modes, which are obtained from our model. Our theoretical results show good agreement with published experiments of the shape oscillations of a bubble in a gelatin gel. We further examine the impact of viscoelasticity on the time evolution of non-spherical mode amplitudes. In particular, we find that viscosity increases the damping rate, thus suppressing the shape instability, while shear modulus increases the natural frequency, which changes the unstable mode. We also explain the contributions of rotational and irrotational fields to the viscoelastic stresses in the surroundings and at the bubble surface, as these contributions affect the damping rate and the unstable mode. Our analysis on the role of viscoelasticity is potentially useful to measure viscoelastic properties of soft materials by experimentally observing the shape oscillations of a bubble.     

Multi-pulse chaotic dynamics in non-planar motion of parametrically excited viscoelastic moving belt

This paper investigates the multi-pulse global bifurcations and chaotic dynamics for the nonlinear, non-planar oscillations of the parametrically excited viscoelastic moving belt using an extended Melnikov method in the resonant case. Using the Kelvin-type viscoelastic constitutive law and Hamilton's principle, the equations of motion are derived for the viscoelastic moving belt with the external damping and parametric excitation. Applying the method of multiple scales and Galerkin's approach to the partial differential governing equation, the four-dimensional averaged equation is obtained for the case of 1:1 internal resonance and primary parametric resonance. From the averaged equations obtained, the theory of normal form is used to derive the explicit expressions of normal form with a double zero and a pair of pure imaginary eigenvalues. Based on the explicit expressions of normal form, the extended Melnikov method is used for the first time to investigate the Shilnikov-type multi-pulse homoclinic bifurcations and chaotic dynamics. The paper demonstrates how to employ the extended Melnikov method to analyze the Shilnikov-type multi-pulse homoclinic bifurcations and chaotic dynamics of high-dimensional nonlinear systems in engineering applications. Numerical simulations show that for the nonlinear non-planar oscillations of the viscoelastic moving belt, the Shilnikov-type multi-pulse chaotic motions can occur. Overall, both theoretical and numerical studies suggest that the chaos for the Smale horseshoe sense in motion exists.     

Bifurcation analysis and amplitude equations for viscoelastic convective fluids

Summary The possible bifurcations of a convective instability in viscoelastic fluid are studied. The viscoelastic behaviour is modelized by means of the Oldroyd type fluid whose parameters can be adjusted to suit a large class of polymeric fluids. We analyse in some detail bifurcations of codimension one (stationary or oscillatory convection) and codimension two for such kind of fluids. By a weak nonlinear analysis, the coefficients of the amplitude equations corresponding to the different bifurcations are also determined. It has been found that the nature of the convective solution depends crucially on both the viscoelastic parameters and the constitutive equation used to describe the fluid.     

Acoustic phase conjugation in a three-phase medium

Acoustic phase conjugation is studied in a sandy marine sediment that contains air bubbles in its fluid fraction. The considered phase conjugation is a four-wave nonlinear parametric sound interaction caused by nonlinear bubble oscillations which are known to be dominant in acoustic nonlinear interactions in three-phase marine sediments. Two various mechanisms of phase conjugation are studied. One of them is based on the stimulated Raman-type sound scattering on resonance bubble oscillations. The other is associated with sound interactions with bubble oscillations whose frequencies are far from resonance bubble frequencies. Nonlinear equations to solve the phase conjugation problem are derived, expressions for acoustic wave amplitudes with a conjugate wave front are obtained and compared for various frequencies of the excited bubble oscillations.     

Weakly nonlinear focused ultrasound in viscoelastic media containing multiple bubbles

To facilitate practical medical applications such as cancer treatment utilizing focused ultrasound and bubbles, a mathematical model that can describe the soft viscoelasticity of human body, the nonlinear propagation of focused ultrasound, and the nonlinear oscillations of multiple bubbles is theoretically derived and numerically solved. The Zener viscoelastic model and Keller–Miksis bubble equation, which have been used for analyses of single or few bubbles in viscoelastic liquid, are used to model the liquid containing multiple bubbles. From the theoretical analysis based on the perturbation expansion with the multiple-scales method, the Khokhlov–Zabolotskaya–Kuznetsov (KZK) equation, which has been used as a mathematical model of weakly nonlinear propagation in single phase liquid, is extended to viscoelastic liquid containing multiple bubbles. The results show that liquid elasticity decreases the magnitudes of the nonlinearity, dissipation, and dispersion of ultrasound and increases the phase velocity of the ultrasound and linear natural frequency of the bubble oscillation. From the numerical calculation of resultant KZK equation, the spatial distribution of the liquid pressure fluctuation for the focused ultrasound is obtained for cases in which the liquid is water or liver tissue. In addition, frequency analysis is carried out using the fast Fourier transform, and the generation of higher harmonic components is compared for water and liver tissue. The elasticity suppresses the generation of higher harmonic components and promotes the remnant of the fundamental frequency components. This indicates that the elasticity of liquid suppresses shock wave formation in practical applications.     

A full Eulerian finite difference approach for solving fluid–structure coupling problems

A new simulation method for solving fluid–structure coupling problems has been developed. All the basic equations are numerically solved on a fixed Cartesian grid using a finite difference scheme. A volume-of-fluid formulation [Hirt, Nichols, J. Comput. Phys. 39 (1981) 201], which has been widely used for multiphase flow simulations, is applied to describing the multi-component geometry. The temporal change in the solid deformation is described in the Eulerian frame by updating a left Cauchy-Green deformation tensor, which is used to express constitutive equations for nonlinear Mooney–Rivlin materials. In this paper, various verifications and validations of the present full Eulerian method, which solves the fluid and solid motions on a fixed grid, are demonstrated, and the numerical accuracy involved in the fluid–structure coupling problems is examined.     

Bubble oscillation and inertial cavitation in viscoelastic fluids

Non-linear acoustic oscillations of gas bubbles immersed in viscoelastic fluids are theoretically studied. The problem is formulated by considering a constitutive equation of differential type with an interpolated time derivative. With the aid of this rheological model, fluid elasticity, shear thinning viscosity and extensional viscosity effects may be taken into account. Bubble radius evolution in time is analyzed and it is found that the amplitude of the bubble oscillations grows drastically as the Deborah number (the ratio between the relaxation time of the fluid and the characteristic time of the flow) increases, so that, even for moderate values of the external pressure amplitude, the behavior may become chaotic. The quantitative influence of the rheological fluid properties on the pressure thresholds for inertial cavitation is investigated. Pressure thresholds values in terms of the Deborah number for systems of interest in ultrasonic biomedical applications, are provided. It is found that these critical pressure amplitudes are clearly reduced as the Deborah number is increased.     

两个等径蛋白质气泡在Bingham流体中振动特性

利用黏弹性膜构成的蛋白质气泡有限变形方程,并考虑一个气泡在Bingham流体中振动产生的Bjerknes力对另一个气泡振动特性的影响,建立了两个等径蛋白质气泡在Bingham流体中振动的非线性方程.利用数值计算方法求解该方程,结果表明,增加Bingham流体的塑性黏度,蛋白质气泡振幅衰减速度加快,振动周期增加,频率减小;当两个气泡间的距离减小时,气泡振动频率会增加,振幅衰减速度加快;初始半径小的气泡振动频率高,振幅衰减快,而且振动的频率和振幅衰减的速率越大;与单个气泡相比,两个蛋白质气泡在Bingham流体中振动时,振动具有更高的振动频率,而且振幅衰减速度更快.     

Maxwell rheological model for lipid-shelled ultrasound microbubble contrast agents

The present paper proposes a model that describes the encapsulation of microbubble contrast agents by the linear Maxwell constitutive equation. The model also incorporates the translational motion of contrast agent microbubbles and takes into account radiation losses due to the compressibility of the surrounding liquid. To establish physical features of the proposed model, comparative analysis is performed between this model and two existing models, one of which treats the encapsulation as a viscoelastic solid following the Kelvin-Voigt constitutive equation and the other assumes that the encapsulating layer behaves as a viscous Newtonian fluid. Resonance frequencies, damping coefficients, and scattering cross sections for the three shell models are compared in the regime of linear oscillation. Translational displacements predicted by the three shell models are examined by numerically calculating the general, nonlinearized equations of motion for weakly nonlinear excitation. Analogous results for free bubbles are also presented as a basis to which calculations made for encapsulated bubbles can be related. It is shown that the Maxwell shell model possesses specific physical features that are unavailable in the two other models.     

Numerical simulation of bubble dynamics in a Phan-Thien–Tanner liquid: Non-linear shape and size oscillatory response under periodic pressure

We study non-linear bubble oscillations driven by an acoustic pressure with the bubble being immersed in a viscoelastic, Phan-Thien–Tanner liquid. Solution is provided numerically through a method which is based on a finite element discretization of the Navier–Stokes flow equations. The proposed computational approach does not rely on the solution of the simplified Rayleigh–Plesset equation, is not limited in studying only spherically symmetric bubbles and provides coupled solutions for the velocity, stress fields and bubble interface. We present solutions for non-spherical bubbles, with asphericity being addressed by means of Legendre polynomials or associated Legendre functions. A parametric investigation of the bubble dynamical oscillatory response as a function of the fluid rheological properties shows that the amplitude of bubble oscillations drastically increases as liquid elasticity (quantified by the Deborah number) increases or as liquid viscosity decreases (quantified by the Reynolds number). Extensive numerical calculations demonstrate that increasing elasticity and/or viscosity of the surrounding liquid tend to stabilize the shape anisotropy of an initially non-spherical bubble. Results are shown for pressure amplitudes 0.2–2 MPa and Deborah, Reynolds numbers in the intervals of 1–8 and 0.094–1.256, respectively.     

Weakly nonlinear propagation of focused ultrasound in bubbly liquids with a thermal effect: Derivation of two cases of Khokolov–Zabolotskaya–Kuznetsoz equations

A physico-mathematical model composed of a single equation that consistently describes nonlinear focused ultrasound, bubble oscillations, and temperature fluctuations is theoretically proposed for microbubble-enhanced medical applications. The Khokhlov–Zabolotskaya–Kuznetsov (KZK) equation that has been widely used as a simplified model for nonlinear propagation of focused ultrasound in pure liquid is extended to that in liquid containing many spherical microbubbles, by applying the method of multiple scales to the volumetric averaged basic equations for bubbly liquids. As a result, for two-dimensional and three-dimensional cases, KZK equations composed of the linear combination of nonlinear, dissipation, dispersion, and focusing terms are derived. Especially, the dissipation term depends on three factors, i.e., interfacial liquid viscosity, liquid compressibility, and thermal conductivity of gas inside bubbles; the thermal conduction is evaluated by using four types of temperature gradient models. Finally, we numerically solve the derived KZK equation and show a moderate temperature rise appropriate to medical applications.     

Large-amplitude nonlinear vibrations of a Mooney–Rivlin rectangular membrane

An analysis of the linear and nonlinear vibration response and stability of a pre-stretched hyperelastic rectangular membrane under harmonic lateral pressure and finite initial deformations is presented in this paper. Geometric nonlinearity due to finite deformations and material nonlinearity associated with the hyperelastic constitutive law are taken into account. The membrane is assumed to be made of an isotropic, homogeneous, and incompressible Mooney–Rivlin material. The results for a neo-Hookean material are obtained as a particular case and a comparison of these two constitutive models is carried out. First, the exact solution of the membrane under a biaxial stretch is obtained, being this initial stress state responsible for the membrane stiffness. The equations of motion of the pre-stretched membrane are then derived. From the linearized equations, the natural frequencies and mode shapes of the membrane are analytically obtained for both materials. The natural modes are then used to approximate the nonlinear deformation field using the Galerkin method. A detailed parametric analysis shows the strong influence of the stretching ratios and material parameters on the linear and nonlinear oscillations of the membrane. Frequency–amplitude relations, resonance curves, and bifurcation diagrams, are used to illustrate the nonlinear dynamics of the membrane. The present results are compared favorably with the results evaluated for the same membrane using a nonlinear finite element formulation.     

A new pressure formulation for gas-compressibility dampening in bubble dynamics models

We formulated a pressure equation for bubbles performing nonlinear radial oscillations under ultrasonic high pressure amplitudes. The proposed equation corrects the gas pressure at the gas–liquid interface on inertial bubbles. This pressure formulation, expressed in terms of gas-Mach number, accounts for dampening due to gas compressibility during the violent collapse of cavitation bubbles and during subsequent rebounds. We refer to this as inhomogeneous pressure, where the gas pressure at the gas–liquid interface can differ to the pressure at the centre of the bubble, in contrast to homogenous pressure formulations that consider that pressure inside the bubble is spatially uniform from the wall to the centre. The pressure correction was applied to two bubble dynamic models: the incompressible Rayleigh–Plesset equation and the compressible Keller and Miksis equation. This improved the predictions of the nonlinear radial motion of the bubble vs time obtained with both models. Those simulations were also compared with other bubble dynamics models that account for liquid and gas compressibility effects. It was found that our corrected models are in closer agreement with experimental data than alternative models. It was concluded that the Rayleigh–Plesset family of equations improve accuracy by using our proposed pressure correction.     

A fluid-mixture type algorithm for barotropic two-fluid flow problems

Our goal is to present a simple interface-capturing approach for barotropic two-fluid flow problems in more than one space dimension. We use the compressible Euler equations in isentropic form as a model system with the thermodynamic property of each fluid component characterized by the Tait equation of state. The algorithm uses a non-isentropic form of the Tait equation of state as a basis to the modeling of the numerically induced mixing between two different barotropic fluid components within a grid cell. Similar to our previous work for multicomponent problems, see [J. Comput. Phys. 171 (2001) 678] and references cited therein, we introduce a mixture type of the model system that consists of the full Euler equations for the basic conserved variables and an additional set of evolution equations for the problem-dependent material quantities and also the approximate location of the interfaces. A standard high-resolution method based on a wave-propagation formulation is employed to solve the proposed model system with the dimensional-splitting technique incorporated in the method for multidimensional problems. Several numerical results are presented in one, two, and three space dimensions that show the feasibility of the method as applied to a reasonable class of practical problems without introducing any spurious oscillations in the pressure near the smeared material interfaces.     

A model for the dynamics of gas bubbles in soft tissue

Understanding the behavior of cavitation bubbles driven by ultrasonic fields is an important problem in biomedical acoustics. Keller-Miksis equation, which can account for the large amplitude oscillations of bubbles, is rederived in this paper and combined with a viscoelastic model to account for the strain-stress relation. The viscoelastic model used in this study is the Voigt model. It is shown that only the viscous damping term in the original equation needs to be modified to account for the effect of elasticity. With experiment determined viscoelastic properties, the effects of elasticity on bubble oscillations are studied. Specifically, the inertial cavitation thresholds are determined using R(max)/R(0), and subharmonic signals from the emission of an oscillating bubble are estimated. The results show that the presence of the elasticity increases the threshold pressure for a bubble to oscillate inertially, and subharmonic signals may only be detectable in certain ranges of radius and pressure amplitude. These results should be easy to verify experimentally, and they may also be useful in cavitation detection and bubble-enhanced imaging.     

分数阶Oldroyd-B黏弹性Poiseuille流的Laplace数值反演分析

采用Laplace数值反演的Stehfest算法研究了分数阶Oldroyd-B粘弹性流体在两平板间非定常的Poiseuille流动问题.首先,通过数值解与近似解析解的比较验证了Stehfest算法的有效性.其次,运用Stehfest算法对平板Poiseuille流动进行了研究,揭示了分数阶黏弹性平板流的速度过冲和应力过冲现象,指出这些现象对分数导数的阶数存在明显的依赖性.同时,数值结果表明,整数阶本构方程仅仅是分数阶本构方程的特例,分数阶本构方程较整数阶本构方程具有更广泛的适用性。     

Efficiency of acoustic heating produced in the thermoviscous flow of a fluid with relaxation

Instantaneous acoustic heating of a fluid with thermodynamic relaxation is the subject of investigation. Among others, viscoelastic biological media described by the Maxwell model of the viscous stress tensor, belong to this type of fluid. The governing equation of acoustic heating is derived by means of the special linear combination of conservation equations in differential form, allowing the reduction of all acoustic terms in the linear part of the final equation, but preserving terms belonging to the thermal mode responsible for heating. The procedure of decomposition is valid for weakly nonlinear flows, resulting in the nonlinear terms responsible for the modes interaction. Nonlinear acoustic terms form a source of acoustic heating in the case of dominative sound, which reflects the thermoviscous and dispersive properties of a fluid. The method of deriving the governing equations does not need averaging over the sound period, and the final governing dynamic equation of the thermal mode is instantaneous. Some examples of acoustic heating are illustrated and discussed, conclusions about efficiency of heating caused by different sound impulses are made.     

Model for bubble pulsation in liquid between parallel viscoelastic layers

A model is presented for a pulsating spherical bubble positioned at a fixed location in a viscous, compressible liquid between parallel viscoelastic layers of finite thickness. The Green's function for particle displacement is found and utilized to derive an expression for the radiation load imposed on the bubble by the layers. Although the radiation load is derived for linear harmonic motion it may be incorporated into an equation for the nonlinear radial dynamics of the bubble. This expression is valid if the strain magnitudes in the viscoelastic layer remain small. Dependence of bubble pulsation on the viscoelastic and geometric parameters of the layers is demonstrated through numerical simulations.     

On the gravitational wave induced oscillations of viscoelastic bodies

An equation for the propagation of oscillations in a viscoelastic solid, induced by gravitational waves, is derived here. A linearized version of a relativistically invariant constitutive equation of integral type is employed in connection with the appropriately linearized field equations of general relativity. This theory could be applied for a more realistic design of gravitational wave detectors.