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Published on: February 17, 2019
Spreading of soap bubbles on dry and wet surfaces
Patricia Pfeiffer1, Claus-Dieter Ohl2
1Institute for Physics, Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg, Universitätsplatz 2, 39106, Magdeburg, Germany. patricia.pfeiffer@ovgu.de.
Abstract:
The spreading of soap bubbles after forming contact with a substrate is experimentally studied. We find for dry glass substrate that the rim of the spreading soap bubble follows the well known scaling law for inertia dominated spreading [Formula: see text] [Eggers, J., Lister, J., and Stone, H., J. Fluid Mech. 401, 293-310 (1999)]. Varying the viscosity of the soap solutions and the coating of the glass does not affect this spreading behavior qualitatively. Yet, on a wetted surface, the rim obtains a constant radial velocity. Here, the rim splits into two and this new rim trails the main rim. Interestingly, the central film enclosed by the two rims develops radially oriented wrinkles.
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