Natural frequencies of a bubble near a solid sphere

Abstract

This paper presents an analytical and computational method to describe natural frequencies of a spherical bubble residing near a solid sphere of an arbitrary size in an otherwise unbounded fluid. Under low capillary and Reynolds number limits, the relevant hydrodynamic fields are converted into time-invariant but frequency-dependent quantities by temporal Fourier transform. Then, the spatial variations in the velocity and the pressure can be expressed in terms of two sets of harmonic basis functions involving spherical coordinates centered around the particle and the bubble. A subsequent derivation of transformation coefficients between the aforementioned two sets allows a matrix equation relating the unknown amplitudes to the boundary conditions at all interfaces. Finally, natural frequencies corresponding to different modes of pulsation are obtained from the eigenvalues of the constructed matrix. The results show fast convergence of the computed frequencies with the increasing number of basis functions. These values change significantly with the distance of the bubble from the particle and even decay to zero for some modes when their surface-to-surface separation vanishes. Furthermore, bubble oscillation near a solid plate is also discussed when the radius of the solid sphere is increased to an infinitely large dimension. Thus, this article renders a comprehensive study of naturally pulsating submerged bubbles in the presence of a nearby solid surface of various kinds.