Modeling frequency shifts of collective bubble resonances with the boundary element method

Abstract

Increasing the number of closely packed air bubbles immersed in water changes the frequency of the Minnaert resonance. The collective interactions between bubbles in a small ensemble are primarily in the same phase, causing them to radiate a spherically symmetric field that peaks at a frequency lower than the Minnaert resonance for a single bubble. In contrast, large periodic arrays include bubbles that are further apart than half of the wavelength such that collective resonances have bubbles oscillating in opposite phases, ultimately creating a fundamental resonance at a frequency higher than the single-bubble Minnaert resonance. This work investigates the transition in resonance behavior using a modal analysis of a mass-spring system and a boundary element method. The computational complexity of the full-wave solver is significantly reduced to a linear dependence on the number of bubbles in a rectangular array. The simulated acoustic fields confirm the initial downshift in resonance frequency and the strong influence of collective resonances when the array has hundreds of bubbles covering more than half of the wavelength. These results are essential in understanding the low-frequency resonance characteristics of bubble ensembles, which have important applications in diverse fields such as underwater acoustics, quantum physics, and metamaterial design.