Investigation of the behavior of microscopic bubbles in insulating liquids: transition from the inertial regime to the viscous one

The dynamics of microscopic bubbles have been widely studied in low-viscous insulating liquids. The bubble motion (growth, collapse, rebound, etc.) is governed by inertial forces. In this paper, we analyse the bubble dynamics in viscous liquids (μ > 3 mPl), and we observed that the implosion time of the bubble becomes more and more important than that obtained in slightly viscous liquids. We conclude that the effect of viscosity controls the bubble dynamics. Experimentally, we have also observed for the first time the transition of the bubble dynamics from the viscous regime to the inertial one and this transition can be explained by a refined analysis of the Rayleigh-Plesset model of bubble dynamics.