ISSN 09655425, Computational Mathematics and Mathematical Physics, 2014, Vol. 54, No. 9, pp. 14811488.

Pleiades Publishing, Ltd., 2014.

Original Russian Text O.A. Abramova, I.Sh. Akhatov, N.A. Gumerov, Yu.A. Itkulova, 2014, published in Zhurnal Vychislitelnoi Matematiki i Matematicheskoi Fiziki,
2014, Vol. 54, No. 9, pp. 15371544.

BEMBased Numerical Study of ThreeDimensional

Compressible Bubble Dynamics in Stokes Flow
O. A. Abramovaa, b, I. Sh. Akhatova, c, N. A. Gumerova, d, and Yu. A. Itkulovaa, b
a
Bashkir State University, ul. Zaki Validi 32, Ufa, 450076 Bashkortostan, Russia
b
Institute of Mechanics, Ufa Scientific Center, Russian Academy of Sciences,
pr. Oktyabrya 71, Ufa, 450054 Bashkortostan, Russia
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, North Dakota State University,
2490, 210 Dolve Hall, P.O. Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108, USA
d
Institute for Advanced Computer Studies, University of Maryland, 3305, A.V. Williams Constructing,
College Park, MD 20742, USA
email: abramovacmndds@gmail.com, Iskander.Akhatov@ndsu.edu, gumerov@umiacs.umd.edu,
ItkulovaYulia@gmail.com
Received July 25, 2013

AbstractThe dynamics of compressible gas bubbles in a viscous shear flow and an acoustic field at
low Reynolds numbers is studied. The numerical approach is based on the boundary element method
(BEM), which is effective as applied to the threedimensional simulation of bubble deformation.
However, the application of the conventional BEM to compressible bubble dynamics faces difficulties
caused by the degeneration of the resulting algebraic system. Additional relations based on the Lorentz
reciprocity principle are used to cope with this problem. Test computations of the dynamics of a single
bubble and bubble clusters in acoustic fields and shear flows are presented.
DOI: 10.1134/S0965542514090024
Keywords: Stokes equations, boundary element method, Lorentz reciprocity principle, bubble
dynamics, shear flow, acoustic field.

INTRODUCTION
The study of the deformation of bubbles moving in a liquid is of practical importance, since bubbles are
found in industrial and biological systems and are also used in many engineering processes. The study of varia
tions in the volume and shape of bubbles in flow under the action of an acoustic field is of great interest.
The dynamics of a spherical bubble is governed by the RayleighPlesset equation (see [1]). Experi
mental and numerical results concerning the dynamics of a spherical bubble in incompressible and com
pressible fluids are presented in [2]. As a rule, the dynamics of compressible bubbles is simulated assuming
that the Reynolds number is large (see, e.g., [3, 4]), whereas the behavior of nonspherical compressible
bubbles in acoustic fields at low Reynolds numbers has been studied to much lower degree. In the Stokes
approximation, this problem can be solved using the boundary element method (BEM) [5]. This method
is effective as applied to threedimensional problems, since it requires only the discretization of the
boundary. BEM is frequently used to study bubble dynamics at high Reynolds numbers, when the flow can
be considered potential (see, e.g., [68]).
However, the conventional BEM formulation describing the dynamics of compressible bubbles in the
Stokes approximation is degenerate. The pressure inside a twodimensional compressible bubble in the
Stokes regime was determined in [9]. The velocity on the free surface was computed by applying the con
ventional BEM with the use of additional relations on the pressure and bubble volume, which ensured a
unique solution. The arising elementary hypersingular integrals were evaluated analytically. In the three
dimensional case, however, the application of this method is considerably complicated. Another approach
was proposed in [10]. Specifically, the Lorentz reciprocity principle was used to determine the pressure.
However, an additional condition on the normal pressure derivative on the boundary was used in [10] but
was not properly justified. Some other approaches to the computation of compressible bubble dynamics
in the Stokes regime can be found in [1114].
In this paper, following [10], we use the Lorentz reciprocity principle. In contrast to [10], no additional
pressure condition is set, while the relations derived from the Lorentz identity are used as additional equa
tions in the general system. Thus, a new BEMbased approach to the simulation of threedimensional

1481
1482 ABRAMOVA et al.

compressible bubble dynamics is implemented. The approach is tested by computing the dynamics of a
single bubble, including the spherical case, and deformation in a shear flow. The interaction of two bubbles
and the dynamics of a bubble cluster are studied under various conditions at infinity.

1. MATHEMATICAL MODEL
Consider the dynamics of a gas bubble (g) in a liquid (l) of viscosity . Assume that the dynamical vis
cosity and the gas density can be neglected. The liquid flow at low Reynolds numbers is described by the
Stokes equations
= p + 2u = 0, u = 0, (1)
where u is the velocity, is the stress tensor, and p is the pressure (including the hydrostatic component).
The following boundary condition is set at the interface S :
f = n = f n,
(2)
f = p p g + 2k + g x, x S,
where f is the difference between the normal stress vectors in the liquid and the bubble, n is the normal to
the surface S directed inward into the liquid, k is the mean curvature of the bubble surface, is the density
of the liquid, g is the acceleration of gravity, x is the position vector of the considered point, p g is the pres
sure in the gas, and p is the liquid pressure at the point x = 0 in the absence of the bubble.
In waterair systems, the kinematic viscosity of the liquid is lower than the thermal diffusivity of the
gas. Thus, the thermal boundary layer in the gas is thicker than the dynamical boundary layer in the liquid,
which in turn is larger than the bubble size. In this case, the gas pressure is given by the formulas
V g0 2
p g (t) = p g0 , p g0 = p0 + ,
V g (t) a0
where the parameters indexed by 0 are initial values at t = 0 , V g is the volume of the bubble, and a is the
radius of the bubble.
In this paper, we assume that the liquid at infinity has a velocity profile u and the absolute liquid pres
sure p varies according to the driving acoustic field and, at the time t , is determines as
p(t) = p0 + pa(t), pa(t ) = Pasin(t + ),
where pa is the acoustic field pressure and Pa , , and are the amplitude, cyclic frequency, and phase shift
of the acoustic field. The motion of points on the bubble surface is described by the kinematic equation
dx = u(x) + w(x), x S, (3)
dt
where w is the correction term for the tangential velocity, which can be arbitrarily specified to preserve a
roughly uniform distribution of vertices (see [15, 16]).
The above formulation of the problem can easily be extended to several bubbles (multiply connected
boundary S ).

2. BOUNDARY INTEGRAL FORMULATION

The Stokes equations (1) can be rewritten in integral form [5]:
y Vl , u (y) u (y)
1
y S, 1 u ( y ) u ( y )
= K ( y, x ) u ( x ) dS ( x ) G ( y, x ) f ( x ) dS ( x ). (4)
2 S S

Here, Vl is the liquid domain, S is the boundary of Vl , and G and K are tensors of the second and third
rank with Cartesian components given by
r r rr r
Gij ( y, x) = 1 ij + i 3j , Tijk ( y, x) = 3 i j5 k ,
8 r r 4 r
K ij ( y, x) = Tijk ( y, x) nk ( x) , ri = yi xi, r = y x , i, j, k = 1,2,3,

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 BEMBASED NUMERICAL STUDY 1483

where ij is the Kronecker delta. However, the velocity determined by Eqs. (4) is independent of the pres
sure drop p p g in view of the identity (see [5])

G ( y, x ) n ( x ) dS ( x ) = 0. (5)
S

The influence of the parameter p p g on the bubble dynamics can be taken into account by applying
the Lorentz reciprocity principle, according to which, for any two Stokes flows characterized by ( u, f ) and
( u ', f ') , respectively, we have the identity

f ' ( x ) u ( x ) dS ( x ) = u ' ( x ) f ( x ) dS ( x ); (6)

S S
here, the integrals are assumed to converge.
Note that any potential flow
u ' ( x ) = '(x), 2 ' = 0, (7)
is a solution of the Stokes equations with p ' = 0 :
p ' = u ' = ( ') = ' = 0,
2 2
( 2
) p ' r = 0,
u ' = ( ') = 2 ' = 0.
For this flow, the components of the stress tensor are given by
u ' u ' '
2
u '
'ij = p '+ i + j = 2 = 2 i .
x j x i x i x j x j

The components of the normal stress are found from (2):
ui'
f i ' = 'ij n j = 2 n j.
x j
Thus, the Lorentz identity (6) can be written as

ui'
u (x) s ' (x) n ( x ) dS ( x ) = 1
2
i ij j f ( x ) u ' ( x ) n ( x ) dS ( x ),
i i sij' ( x ) = (x) . (8)
x j
S S

The flow generated by a source of unit strength located at the point x 0 is described by the equation
r 3r r
'(y) = 1 , ui'(y) = i 3 , sij' (y) = 1 ij3 i5 j ,
4r 4r 4 r r (9)
ri = yi x0i, r = y x 0 , i = 1,2,3.
We use (9) as a test flow in the Lorentz reciprocity principle in the case of a single bubble when x 0 is an
arbitrary point inside the bubble.
Consider two bubbles under the assumption that the gravity and surface tension effects are insignificant
as compared with the pressure drop p p g . In this case, the function f ( x ) can be specified as equal to a
(1) (1) (2) (2)
constant f on the surface S of bubble 1 and to a constant f on the surface S of bubble 2. These
values can be different, since the bubbles can have different volumes. For this case, Eq. (8) can be rewritten
in view of (7) as

u ( x) s ' ( x) n ( x) dS ( x) + u ( x) s ' ( x) n ( x) dS ( x)
i ij j i ij j
S (1) S (2)
' '
= 1 f (1) ( x ) dS ( x ) + 1 f (2) ( x) dS ( x ).
2 (1)
n 2 (2)
n
S S

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1484 ABRAMOVA et al.

Assume that the source x 0 is located in bubble 1, while bubble 2 has no an inside singularity. Since the
potential ' is nonsingular on S and is a harmonic function, the Gauss theorem implies that
(2)

1 f (2) '
( x ) dS ( x ) = 1 f (2) ' ( x) dS ( x) = 0.
2

2 (2)
n 2 (2)
S V2
(2) (2)
This means that f does not influence the flow. Although the surface S deforms under the action of
the flow generated by bubble 1, the dynamics of the system is not affected by the gas properties in the sec
ond bubble, which is physically incorrect. Consider the case when bubble 1 transfers information on the
flow to bubble 2. Then the boundary integral equations (3) for the liquid that is at rest at infinity ( u = 0)
have the form
1u y +
2
( ) K ( y, x) u ( x) dS ( x) + K ( y, x) u ( x) dS ( x)
(1) (2)
S S
(10)
= 1 f (1) G ( y, x ) n ( x ) dS ( x ) 1 f (2) G ( y, x) n ( x) dS ( x), y S.
(1)
(2)
S S
The lefthand side of Eqs. (10) vanishes in view of identity (5). Note that the volume of the second bub
ble remains unchanged, since all the liquid elements outside bubble 1 preserve their volume.
To solve the problem in the case of two or M bubbles, we consider M test flows (9) with monopole cen
ters placed at the points x 0 n , n = 1, M , where x 0n is an arbitrary point inside the nth bubble.

3. TEST COMPUTATIONS
All the computations were performed for a liquid of density = 1000 kg/m3 and viscosity = 0.01 Pa s
with the surface tension = 0.05 N/m. The initial radii of the bubbles varied from 1 to 1.5 m. The acous
tic field parameters were specified as /2 = 200 kHz, T = 2/ = 5 s, Pa = p0 = 105Pa, and = . All
the parameters were chosen so that the Reynolds number Re = 2aal / l and the Fourier number
Fo = a 2 l / l were sufficiently low.
A simple test example is implemented for the study of the dynamics of a single spherical bubble in the
Stokes regime. An equation governing the bubble radius can be derived from the generalized Rayleigh
Plesset equation [3] with inertia neglected:
2
()
3
a
a = a pg0 0 p (t ) , a ( 0) = a0. (11)
4 a a
Using this equation, we can estimate the characteristic relaxation time for the bubble radius at the
instantaneous pressure drop p :
4a0
< .
3pa0 2
1
In the numerical simulation, the time step t was determined by the conditions t and t .
The bubble surface was discretized using a triangular grid with a node valence at least five. The mean
curvature of the surface at each node was calculated by applying the method of parabolic approximation
[17]. By using the collocation method at mesh nodes, the last equation in (4) and the additional boundary
integral relations for each bubble in (8) are reduced to an overdetermined system of linear algebraic equa
tions for the unknown velocity components on the boundary. The surface integrals are evaluated using
quadrature formulas with abscissas at nodes. The singular integrals are computed by applying wellknown
integral identities for Stokes flows (see [17, 18]).
In the course of the evolution, the points of the bubble surface move according to Eq. (3), which is
solved using the fourthorder RungeKutta method at initial time steps and subsequently by applying the
sixthorder AdamsBashforthMoulton method (predictorcorrector).
In Fig. 1, the BEMbased numerical solution obtained with various bubble surface discretizations is
compared with a highaccuracy solution of Cauchy problem (11) (referred to as the exact solution). Fig
ure 2 presents the relative error of the bubble radius in the L norm as a function of time. A comparison

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 BEMBASED NUMERICAL STUDY 1485

Exact solution
BEM N = 162
BEM N = 642
642

Fig. 1. Comparison of the numerical and exact solutions for a single spherical bubble in an acoustic field. Variation in the
bubble radius.

Relative error

Fig. 2. Comparison of the numerical and exact solutions for a single spherical bubble in an acoustic field. The relative error
is .

shows that the BEM produces a solution with good accuracy, which is improved as the number of nodes N
increases (1.12% for N = 162 and 0.28% for N = 642 ).
We studied the deformation of a single bubble in a shear flow under an acoustic field. Figure 3 shows
the deformation of a bubble at various times at the Capillary number Ca = 0.2 , which is defined by the
formula Ca = aG / , where G is the shear rate. It can be seen that the bubble first expands and elongates
along the shear flow; then, after a stable state is reached, the bubble varies only in volume according to the
applied acoustic field. The inclination angle and the deformation of the bubble at the time t = T are in
good agreement with results obtained for an incompressible bubble [15, 16].

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1486 ABRAMOVA et al.

Fig. 3. Dynamics of a single bubble in shear flow and an acoustic field.

2 2 2 2 2 2

2 2 2 2 2 2

Fig. 4. Interaction of two bubbles in an acoustic field.

Figure 4 displays the interaction of two bubbles in an acoustic field. Initially, the distance between the
bubble centers is d = 2.5a . According to Fig. 1, the original radius of each bubble increases by a factor of
1.4. Thus, as the acoustic field pressure decreases, the bubbles expand and deform influenced by each

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 BEMBASED NUMERICAL STUDY 1487

2 2 2 2 2 2

2 2 2 2 2 2

Fig. 5. Interaction of two bubbles in shear flow and an acoustic field.

106 106 106

z z z

106 106 106

Fig. 6. Dynamics of several bubbles in an acoustic field.

other. As the acoustic field pressure increases, their radii are reduced and they cease to influence each
other. It can be seen that, at the time t = T , when the bubbles reach their original radius, the distance
between them increases. We also studied the interaction of two bubbles in a shear flow under an acoustic
field (Fig. 5). The bubbles expand, deform, and repel each other.
In Fig. 6, ten bubbles with an initial Gaussian distribution in radii and space separated by considerable
distances are shown at various times. The volumes of the bubbles change under the action of the acoustic
field. The largest bubble sizes are observed at the time t = 0.25T , while the smallest ones occur at
t = 0.75T .

CONCLUSIONS
To simulate the dynamics of compressible bubbles in a Stokes flow, a modified BEM with the Lorentz
reciprocity principle used to take into account variations in the bubble volume was developed and imple

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1488 ABRAMOVA et al.

mented. A comparison of the BEMbased numerical solutions with the exact one showed that they are in
good agreement. Several cases with various conditions at infinity, including shear flow and a variable pres
sure, were simulated. We studied the interaction of two bubbles and the dynamics of several bubbles of dif
ferent radii.
The results of the test computations suggest that the dynamics of compressible bubbles in a shear flow
in the presence of an acoustic field is well described by the approach implemented. Accordingly, it can be
used to examine numerous effects in various bubbly liquids in the Stokes regime.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation (project
no. 11. G34.31.0040), Christian Doppler Research Association (Austria), and Goettingen University (Germany).

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Translated by I. Ruzanova

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