Bubble velocities: further developments on the jump discontinuity

Abstract

The motion of a gas bubble in a non-Newtonian fluid has been further examined in order to determine the conditions for the possible existence of a discontinuity in the bubble velocity-bubble volume log–log plot. It has been proposed in the past that this phenomenon was the result of a sudden change in the hydrodynamics of the moving bubble, resulting in a transition from a Stroke to a Hadamard regime. Furthermore, this abrupt transition was only qualitatively attributed to the elasticity of the fluid. Using our data as well as those of Leal et al., we demonstrate here that the discontinuity results as a balance between elastic and Marangoni instabilities, providing another major difference between Newtonian and non-Newtonian hydrodynamics.