A microbubble in a sound wave oscillates in volume and translates
unsteadily. The two motions are coupled. In large-scale simulations of
the structure of bubble clouds driven by acoustic fields, it has been
of significant convenience to decouple volume oscillations and
translation, as an approximation. The errors of this decoupling
approximation were considered in an earlier publication (A. J. Reddy
and A. J. Szeri, Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2002),
in the parameter range of interest in medical ultrasound. In this work,
the approximation is reexamined for a much broader range of driving
frequencies and bubble sizes. Solving the equation of motion for linearly
oscillating bubbles, it is found that even for weak acoustic
forcing, the translation speed obtained with the decoupling
approximation can be in error as much as 30% relative to the
translation speed in the full equations. The error depends on the
bubble size, the driving frequency, and the liquid properties. The
results are presented in a form convenient for applications. The
principal utility of the analysis is for bubbles in microgravity, or in
normal gravity driven by a soundfield with a horizontal wavenumber vector.

• Legal notice:
  

  Copyright (c) Pielaszek Research, all rights reserved.
  The above materials, including auxiliary resources, are subject to Publisher's copyright and the Author(s) intellectual rights. Without limiting Author(s) rights under respective Copyright Transfer Agreement, no part of the above documents may be reproduced without the express written permission of Pielaszek Research, the Publisher. Express permission from the Author(s) is required to use the above materials for academic purposes, such as lectures or scientific presentations.
  In every case, proper references including Author(s) name(s) and URL of this webpage: https://science24.com/paper/7474 must be provided.

1. Chemical evolution of laser-produced bubbles in water
2. Fundamentals in cavitation, sonochemistry and sonoluminescence: Report on WG9 activity
3. Shape stability and violent collapse of microbubbles in acoustic travelling waves