Applied Mechanics Commons^™

Experimental Study On The Effect Of Air Flow On Soap Bubble Formation, John M. Davidson

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Soap bubbles are a common interfacial fluid dynamics phenomenon having applications such as buoyant hollow spherical fillers and flow visualization of large scale airflows. In contrast to the dynamics of liquid drops in gas and gas bubbles in liquid, the dynamics of soap bubbles has not been well documented, possibly because soap bubbles have gas-liquid-gas interfaces. Having the thin-liquid-film interface seems to alter the characteristics of the bubble/drop creation process. Thus, the main objective of this study is to experimentally examine how airflow develops and interacts with the soap liquid film as the film stretches and finally collapses to pinch-off. …