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    Partial ventilation of an oscillating bubble induced by Rayleigh-Taylor instability near a water surface

    Guanghang Wang

    Jingzhu Wang*

    Xiangyan Chen

    Jianlin Huang

    Guangyi Song

    Qingyun Zeng

    Yiwei Wang

    • Beijing Institute of Astronautical Systems Engineering, Beijing 100076, People's Republic of China

    • Key Laboratory for Mechanics in Fluid Solid Coupling Systems, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China; School of Engineering Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China; and Guangdong Aerospace Research Academy, Guangzhou 511458, People's Republic of China

    • Beijing Institute of Astronautical Systems Engineering, Beijing 100076, People's Republic of China

    • College of Shipbuilding Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Harbin 150001, People's Republic of China and Nanhai Institute of Harbin Engineering University, Sanya, 572024, People's Republic of China

    • Key Laboratory for Mechanics in Fluid Solid Coupling Systems, Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China; School of Future Technology, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China; and School of Engineering Science, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China

    • *Contact author: wangjingzhu@imech.ac.cn

    Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 123601 – Published 5 December, 2025

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/3q7n-d96f

    Abstract

    The behaviors of an oscillating bubble near a water surface can be classified as forming a toroidal shape resulting from a re-entrant jet and an open bubble completely exposed to the atmosphere. In this study, we observe a phenomenon of partial ventilation. As the bubble expands, perturbations induced by the Rayleigh-Taylor instability grow rapidly on the water's surface and eventually penetrate the bubble wall, allowing ambient air to rapidly enter its interior. The bubble loses its transparency due to the considerable disturbance caused by high-speed airflow and various-sized droplets across its entire wall. Three distinct types of bubble behaviors with decreasing dimensionless standoff distance γ are summarized in this study as follows: (i) nonventilation; (ii) partial ventilation; and (iii) complete ventilation, depending on the exposure of a bubble's interior to the surrounding air. The study investigates the partial ventilation phenomenon by combining laboratory experiments, numerical simulations, and analytical modeling. The analytical model comprises two components: a small-amplitude model that explains the growth of perturbations and a bubble-oscillation model that describes the bubble dynamics. Solving the model obtains the boundaries for the partial ventilation regime. These boundaries encompass upper and lower limits for both the dimensionless timing for starting ventilation tv′ and the dimensionless standoff distance γ. The analytical estimates agree well with the experimental observations and numerical results.

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