Numerical solution of free-boundary problems in fluid mechanics. Part 3. Bubble deformation in an axisymmetric straining flow

We consider the deformation of a bubble in a uniaxial extensional flow for Reynolds numbers in the range 0.1 [les ] R [les ] 100. The computations show that the bubble bursts at a relatively early stage of deformation for R [ges ] O(10), never reaching the highly elongated shapes observed and predicted at lower Reynolds numbers. We also compute the deformation of the bubble under the assumption of potential flow, and conclude that the potential-flow solution provides a good approximation to the real flow in this case for R [ges ] O(100).