The dynamic response of an initially spherical capsule subject to different externally imposed flows is examined. The neo-Hookean and Skalak et al. (Biophys. J., vol. 13 (1973), pp. 245-264) constitutive laws are used for the description of the membrane mechanics, assuming negligible bending resistance. The viscosity ratio between the interior and exterior fluids of the capsule is taken to be unity and creeping-flow conditions are assumed to prevail. The capillary number ε is the basic dimensionless number of the problem, which measures the relative importance of viscous and elastic forces. The boundary-element method is used with bi-cubic B-splines as basis functions in order to discretize the capsule surface by a structured mesh. This guarantees continuity of second derivatives with respect to the position of the Lagrangian particles used for tracking the location of the interface at each time step and improves the accuracy of the method. For simple shear flow and hyperbolic flow, an interval in ε is identified within which stable equilibrium shapes are obtained. For smaller values of ε, steady shapes are briefly captured, but they soon become unstable owing to the development of compressive tensions in the membrane near the equator that cause the capsule to buckle. The post-buckling state of the capsule is conjectured to exhibit small folds around the equator similar to those reported by Walter et al. Colloid Polymer Sci. Vol. 278 (2001), pp. 123-132 for polysiloxane microcapsules. For large values of ε, beyond the interval of stability, the membrane has two tips along the direction of elongation where the deformation is most severe, and no equilibrium shapes could be identified. For both regions outside the interval of stability, the membrane model is not appropriate and bending resistance is essential to obtain realistic capsule shapes. This pattern persists for the two constitutive laws that were used, with the Skalak et al. law producing a wider stability interval than the neo-Hookean law owing to its strain hardening nature.

The translational velocities of two spherical gas bubbles oscillating in water, which is irradiated by a high-intensity acoustic wave field, are calculated. The two bubbles are assumed to be located far enough apart so that shape oscillations can be neglected. Viscous effects are included owing to the small size of the bubbles. An asymptotic solution is obtained that accounts for the viscous drag on each bubble, for large ${\it Re}$ based on the radial part of the motion, in a form similar to the leading-order prediction by Levich (1962), $C_{D} = 48/{\it Re}_{T}$; ${\it Re}_{T} \to \infty$ based on the translational velocity. In this context the translational velocity of each bubble, which is a direct measure of the secondary Bjerknes force between the two bubbles, is evaluated asymptotically and calculated numerically for sound intensities as large as the Blake threshold. Two cases are examined. First, two bubbles of unequal size with radii on the order of $100\,\umu$m are subjected to a sound wave with amplitude $P_{A} < 1.0$ bar and forcing frequency $\omega_{f} = 0.51\omega_{10}$, so that the second harmonic falls within the range defined by the eigenfrequencies of the two bubbles, $\omega_{10} < 2\omega_{f} < \omega_{20}$. It is shown that their translational velocity changes sign, becoming repulsive as $P_{A}$ increases from 0.05 to 0.1 bar due to the growing second harmonic, $2\omega_{f}$, of the forcing frequency. However, as the amplitude of sound further increases, $P_{A} \approx 0.5$ bar, the two bubbles attract each other due to the growth of even higher harmonics that fall outside the range defined by the eigenfrequencies of the two bubbles. Second, the case of much smaller bubbles is examined, radii on the order of $10\,\umu$m, driven well below resonance, $\omega_{f}/2\pi = 20$ kHz, at very large sound intensities, $P_{A} \approx 1$ bar. Numerical simulations show that the forces between the two bubbles tend to be attractive, except for a narrow region of bubble size corresponding to a nonlinear resonance related to the Blake threshold. As the distance between them decreases, the region of repulsion is shifted, indicating sign inversion of their mutual force. Extensive numerical simulations indicate the formation of bubble pairs with constant average inter-bubble distance, consisting of bubbles with equilibrium radii determined by the primary and secondary resonance frequencies for small and moderate sound amplitudes or by the Blake threshold for large sound amplitudes. It is conjectured that in experiments where ‘acoustic streamers’ are observed, which are filamentary structures consisting of bubbles that are aligned and move rapidly in a cavitating fluid at nearly constant distances from each other, bubbles with size determined by the Blake threshold are predominant because those with size determined by linear resonance are larger and therefore become unstable due to shape oscillations.

The nonlinear radial oscillations of bubbles that are encapsulated in an elastic shell are investigated numerically subject to three different constitutive laws describing the viscoelastic properties of the shell: the Mooney-Rivlin (MR), the Skalak (SK), and the Kelvin-Voigt (KV) models are used in order to describe strain-softening, strain-hardening and small displacement (Hookean) behavior of the shell material, respectively. Due to the isotropic nature of the acoustic disturbances, the area dilatation modulus is the important parameter. When the membrane is strain softening (MR) the resonance frequency decreases with increasing sound amplitude, whereas the opposite happens when the membrane is strain hardening (SK). As the amplitude of the acoustic disturbance increases the total scattering cross section of a microbubble with a SK membrane tends to decrease, whereas that of a KV or a MR membrane tends to increase. The importance of strain-softening behavior in the abrupt onset of volume pulsations, that is often observed with small insonated microbubbles at moderately large sound amplitudes, is discussed.

The transient deformation of an axisymmetric capsule freely suspended in a pure straining flow is studied, for sudden or periodic variations of the intensity of the rate of strain. The particle Reynolds number is supposed to be very small and the problem is solved numerically by means of the boundary integral method. In the case of a sudden start of flow, the time response of the capsule can be approximated by an exponential function, and is thus characterized by only two parameters: the equilibrium deformation D ϱ and the characteristic response time s. The respective influence of viscosity ratio, membrane elasticity, and initial particle geometry is analyzed. The dynamic response of the capsule subjected to periodic variations of the rate of strain is also studied. The response time s appears to be an appropriate parameter to estimate the capsule adaptability to changing flow conditions.

It is well known from experiments in acoustic cavitation that two bubbles pulsating in a liquid may attract or repel each other depending on whether they oscillate in or out of phase, respectively. The forces responsible for this phenomenon are called ‘Bjerknes’ forces. When attractive forces are present the two bubbles are seen to accelerate towards each other and coalesce (Kornfeld & Suvorov 1944) and occasionally even breakup in the process. In the present study the response of two initially equal and spherical bubbles is examined under a step change in the hydrostatic pressure at infinity. A hybrid boundary–finite element method is used in order to follow the shape deformation and change in the potential of the two interfaces. Under the conditions mentioned above the two bubbles are found to attract each other always, with a force inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them when this distance is large, a result known to Bjerknes. As time increases the two bubbles continue accelerating towards each other and often resemble either the spherical-cap shapes observed by Davies & Taylor (1950), or the globally deformed shapes observed by Kornfeld & Suvorov (1944). Such shapes occur for sufficiently large or small values of the Bond number respectively (based on the average acceleration). It is also shown here that spherical-cap shapes arise through a Rayleigh–Taylor instability, whereas globally deformed shapes occur as a result of subharmonic resonance between the volume oscillations of the two bubbles and certain non-spherical harmonics (Hall & Seminara 1980). Eventually, in both cases the two bubbles break up due to severe surface deformation.

The motion of two gas bubbles in response to an oscillatory disturbance in the ambient pressure is studied. It is shown that the relative motion of bubbles of unequal size depends on the frequency of the disturbance. If this frequency is between the two natural frequencies for volume oscillations of the individual bubbles, the two bubbles are seen to move away from each other; otherwise attractive forces prevail. Bubbles of equal size can only attract each other, irrespective of the oscillation frequency. When the Bond number, Bo (based on the average acceleration) lies above a critical region, spherical-cap shapes appear with deformation confined on the side of the bubbles facing away from the direction of acceleration. For Bo below the critical region shape oscillations spanning the entire bubble surface take place, as a result of subharmonic resonance. The presence of the oscillatory acoustic field adds one more frequency to the system and increases the possibilities for resonance. However, only subharmonic resonance is observed because it occurs on a faster timescale, O(1/ε), where ε is the disturbance amplitude. Furthermore, among the different possible periodic variations of the volume of each bubble, the one with the smaller period determines which Legendre mode will be excited through subharmonic resonance. Spherical-cap shapes also occur on a timescale O(1/ε). When the bubbles are driven below resonance and for quite large amplitudes of the acoustic pressure, ε ≈ 0.8, a subharmonic signal at half the natural frequency of volume oscillations is obtained. This signal is primarily associated with the zeroth mode and corresponds to volume expansion followed by rapid collapse of the bubbles, a behaviour well documented in acoustic cavitation experiments.

Stability analysis of the radial pulsations of a gas microbubble that is encapsulated by a thin viscoelastic shell and surrounded by an ideal incompressible liquid is carried out. Small axisymmetric disturbances in the microbubble shape are imposed and their long and short term stability is examined depending on the initial bubble radius, the shell properties, and the parameters, i.e., frequency and amplitude, of the external acoustic excitation. Owing to the anisotropy of the membrane that is forming the encapsulating shell, two different types of elastic energy are accounted for, namely, the membrane and bending energy per unit of initial area. They are used to describe the tensions that develop on the shell due to shell stretching and bending, respectively. In addition, two different constitutive laws are used in order to relate the tensions that develop on the membrane as a result of stretching, i.e., the Mooney-Rivlin law describing materials that soften as deformation increases and the Skalak law describing materials that harden as deformation increases. The limit for static buckling is obtained when the external overpressure exerted upon the membrane surpasses a critical value that depends on the membrane bending resistance. The stability equations describing the evolution of axisymmetric disturbances, in the presence of an external acoustic field, reveal that static buckling becomes relevant when the forcing frequency is much smaller than the resonance frequency of the microbubble, corresponding to the case of slow compression. The resonance frequencies for shape oscillations of the microbubble are also obtained as a function of the shell parameters. Floquet analysis shows that parametric instability, similar to the case of an oscillating free bubble, is possible for the case of a pulsating encapsulated microbubble leading to shape oscillations as a result of subharmonic or harmonic resonance. These effects take place for acoustic amplitude values that lie above a certain threshold but below those required for static buckling to occur. They are quite useful in providing estimates for the shell elasticity and bending resistance based on a frequency/amplitude sweep that monitors the onset of shape oscillations when the forcing frequency resonates with the radial pulsation, f = 0 , or with a certain shape mode, f =2 n . An acceleration based instability, identified herein as dynamic buckling, is observed during the compression phase of the pulsation, evolving over a small number of periods of the forcing, when the amplitude of the acoustic excitation is further increased. It corresponds to the RayleighTaylor instability observed for free bubbles, and has been observed with contrast agents as well, e.g., BR-14. Finally, phase diagrams for contrast agent BR-14 are constructed and juxtaposed with available experimental data, illustrating the relevance and range of the above instabilities.

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