Related Experiment Video
Updated: Feb 28, 2026

Induction of Microstreaming by Nonspherical Bubble Oscillations in an Acoustic Levitation System
Published on: May 9, 2021
A derivation of the stable cavitation threshold accounting for bubble-bubble interactions
Matthieu Guédra1, Corentin Cornu1, Claude Inserra1
1Univ Lyon, Université Lyon 1, INSERM, LabTAU, F-69003 Lyon, France.
Abstract:
The subharmonic emission of sound coming from the nonlinear response of a bubble population is the most used indicator for stable cavitation. When driven at twice their resonance frequency, bubbles can exhibit subharmonic spherical oscillations if the acoustic pressure amplitude exceeds a threshold value. Although various theoretical derivations exist for the subharmonic emission by free or coated bubbles, they all rest on the single bubble model. In this paper, we propose an analytical expression of the subharmonic threshold for interacting bubbles in a homogeneous, monodisperse cloud. This theory predicts a shift of the subharmonic resonance frequency and a decrease of the corresponding pressure threshold due to the interactions. For a given sonication frequency, these results show that an optimal value of the interaction strength (i.e. the number density of bubbles) can be found for which the subharmonic threshold is minimum, which is consistent with recently published experiments conducted on ultrasound contrast agents.
Related Concept Videos
Excess Pressure Inside a Drop and a Bubble
Deriving the Speed of Sound in a Liquid
The speed of sound in fluids can be derived by considering a mechanical wave...
Buoyancy and Stability for Submerged and Floating Bodies
Vapor Pressure of Fluid
When a liquid is placed in a closed container with a small air space, and the space is evacuated, vapor molecules will...
Bernoulli's Principle
Bernoulli's principle has several...
Real Gases: Effects of Intermolecular Forces and Molecular Volume Deriving Van der Waals Equation

