TY - JOUR
T1 - Restoring universality to the pinch-off of a bubble
AU - Pahlavan, Amir A.
AU - Stone, Howard A.
AU - McKinley, Gareth H.
AU - Juanes, Ruben
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Denis Bartolo and Jens Eggers for insightful discussions, and Benzhong Zhao for advice on the experimental setup. This work was funded by the US Department of Energy (Grant no. DE-SC0018357).
Funding Information:
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. We thank Denis Bartolo and Jens Eggers for insightful discussions, and Benzhong Zhao for advice on the experimental setup. This work was funded by the US Department of Energy (Grant no. DE-SC0018357).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.
PY - 2019
Y1 - 2019
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Bubble pinch-off
KW - Finite-time singularity formation
KW - Moving contact lines
KW - Universality
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U2 - 10.1073/pnas.1819744116
DO - 10.1073/pnas.1819744116
M3 - Article
C2 - 31209045
AN - SCOPUS:85068548577
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 116
SP - 13780
EP - 13784
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 28
ER -