The dynamics of a non-equilibrium bubble near bio-materials

Abstract

In many medical treatments oscillating (non-equilibrium) bubbles appear. They can be the result of high-intensity-focused ultrasound, laser treatments or shock wave lithotripsy for example. The physics of such oscillating bubbles is often not very well understood. This is especially so if the bubbles are oscillating near (soft) bio-materials. It is well known that bubbles oscillating near (hard) materials have a tendency to form a high speed jet directed towards the material during the collapse phase of the bubble. It is equally well studied that bubbles near a free interface (air) tend to collapse with a jet directed away from this interface. If the interface is neither 'free' nor 'hard', such as often occurs in bio-materials, the resulting flow physics can be very complex. Yet, in many bio-applications, it is crucial to know in which direction the jet will go (if there is a jet at all). Some applications require a jet towards the tissue, for example to destroy it. For other applications, damage due to impacting jets is to be prevented at all cost. This paper tries to address some of the physics involved in these treatments by using a numerical method, the boundary element method (BEM), to study the dynamics of such bubbles near several bio-materials. In the present work, the behaviour of a bubble placed in a water-like medium near various bio-materials (modelled as elastic fluids) is investigated. It is found that its behaviour depends on the material properties (Young's modulus, Poisson ratio and density) of the bio-material. For soft bio-materials (fat, skin, brain and muscle), the bubble tends to split into smaller bubbles. In certain cases, the resulting bubbles develop opposing jets. For hard bio-materials (cornea, cartilage and bone), the bubble collapses towards the interface with high speed jets (between 100 and about 250 m s -1). A summary graph is provided identifying the combined effects of the dimensionless elasticity (κ) and density ratio (α) of the elastic materials which will result in a nearby oscillating bubble jetting towards, splitting or jetting away from the elastic material interface. Since the phenomenon of a bubble jetting away from an elastic material as it collapses has not been reported before in the literature, experiments were performed to validate the numerical observation. A bubble is created in a heavy fluid (hydrofluoroether (HFE)) using a laser pulse. The bubble collapses near the elastic material polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The experimental results obtained are compared with the corresponding simulation. The simulation provides spatial and temporal details about the bubble dynamics beyond experimental limits and can therefore be considered as a very useful tool to get a better understanding of the physics involved. © 2009 Institute of Physics and Engineering in Medicine.