On the stability of double bubbles and double drops
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 15, 2026

Induction of Microstreaming by Nonspherical Bubble Oscillations in an Acoustic Levitation System
Published on: May 9, 2021
Lev A Slobozhanin1, J Iwan D Alexander
1Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and National Center for Microgravity Research on Fluids and Combustion, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106, USA.
Abstract:
The stability problems for equilibrium standard "double bubble" and "double drop" configurations are considered. Recent work has shown that a double bubble is stable to volume-preserving perturbations. In this paper, the stability to perturbations that do not conserve the volumes of the individual bubbles is examined. It is shown that a double bubble shape is also stable to these perturbations and, thus, is stable to arbitrary perturbations. The analysis is based on the principle of minimum total energy. A variational principle is used to formulate the stability problem for an equilibrium double drop configuration formed under zero gravity by two drops of immiscible incompressible liquids.
Related Concept Videos
Excess Pressure Inside a Drop and a Bubble
Buoyancy and Stability for Submerged and Floating Bodies
Oscillations about an Equilibrium Position
Stability of Equilibrium Configuration
A stable equilibrium occurs when a system tends to return to its original position when given a small displacement, and the potential energy is at its minimum. An example of a stable equilibrium is when a cantilever beam is fixed at one end and a weight is attached to the other end. If the weight...
Two Components: Liquid–Liquid Systems
Types of Damping
