ACOUSTIC CAVITATION USING RESONATING MICROBUBBLES: ANALYSIS IN THE TIME-DOMAIN

We study the time-domain acoustic wave propagation in the presence of a microbubble. This microbubble is characterized by a mass density and bulk modulus which are both very small compared to the ones of the background vacuum. The goal is to estimate the amount of pressure that is created very near (at a distance proportional to the radius of the bubble) to the bubble. We show that, at that small distance, the dominating field is reminiscent of the wave created by a point-like obstacle modeled formally by a Dirac-like heterogeneity with support at the location of the bubble and the contrast between the bubble and background material as the scattering coefficient. As a conclusion, we can tune the bubble's material properties so that the pressure near it reaches a desired amount. Such a design might be useful for the purpose of acoustic cavitation, where one needs enough, but not too much, pressure to eliminate unwanted anomalies. The mathematical analysis is done using time-domain integral equations and asymptotic analysis techniques. A well known feature here is that the contrasting scales between the bubble and the background generate resonances (mainly the Minnaert one) in the time-harmonic regime. Such critical scales, and the generated resonances, are also reflected in the time-domain estimation of the acoustic wave. In particular, reaching the desired amount of pressure x'near the location of the bubble is possible only with such resonating bubbles.