Original Research Papers

The sizes of the jet drops produced by air bubbles bursting on sea- and fresh-water surfaces

Authors:

Abstract

The size distributions of the top 6 jet drops produced by air bubbles bursting on sea- and fresh-water surfaces are presented for bubbles with radii from 350 to 1500 μm. There are no significant differences in the results between sea- and fresh-water. Except for the top drop, the size distributions are often bimodal. For the top jet drop, the dependence of the average droplet radius, Rd, on bubble radius, Rb, is given by the fit Rd = 0.0337 Rb 1.208(μm) which compares well with the results for the top drop reported by Blanchard in 1989. Excluding the droplets in the small modes, the droplet size dependence on bubble size for the lower droplets (those subsequent to the top drop) is, within statistical certainty, the same for all the droplets from the second through the fifth. The data for these droplets is fit by Rd = 0.0165 Rb 1.325. The probability that a bubble with a given radius produces at least n drops is given for n up to 7, although a small number of bubble bursts were observed to have produced at least 15 jet droplets.

  • Year: 1994
  • Volume: 46 Issue: 4
  • Page/Article: 325-338
  • DOI: 10.3402/tellusb.v46i4.15808
  • Submitted on 1 Oct 1993
  • Accepted on 3 Feb 1994
  • Published on 1 Jan 1994
  • Peer Reviewed