Collective nonlinear behavior of interacting polydisperse microbubble clusters

Acoustically excited microbubbles (MBs) have shown to exhibit rich dynamics, enabling them to be employed in various applications ranging from chemistry to medicine. Exploiting the full potential of MBs for applications requires a good understanding of their complex dynamics. Improved understanding of MB oscillations can lead to further enhancement in optimizing their efficacy in many applications and also invent new ones. Oscillating MBs have been shown to generate secondary pressure waves that modify the dynamics of the MBs in their proximity. A modified Keller-Miksis equation is used to account for inter-bubble interactions. The oscillatory dynamics of each MB within clusters was computed by numerically solving the resulting system of coupled nonlinear second order differential equations in potential fluid flow. Frequency response analysis and bifurcation diagrams were employed to track the dynamics of interacting MBs. We start with investigating the effect of inter-bubble interactions for cases of three and four MBs over a wide range of acoustic and geometric parameters. Emergent collective behavior was observed which are dominated by the dynamics of the largest MB within the cluster. The emergent dynamics of smaller MBs within clusters can be characterized by constructive and destructive inter-bubble interactions. In constructive interactions, the radial oscillations of smaller MBs matched those of the largest MB and their oscillations are amplified. In destructive interactions, the oscillations of smaller bubbles are suppressed so that their oscillations match those of the largest MB. Furthermore, a special case of constructive interactions is presented where dominant MB (largest) can force smaller MBs into period doubling and subharmonic oscillations. The collective behavior is further investigated in large MB cluster and it is shown that largest MBs, even in small numbers can force smaller ones into period doubling and subharmonic oscillations.