arXiv subjects

Outi Supponen

Publications and source records attributed to Outi Supponen.

16 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Bubble jetting in acoustic microdroplet vaporization

Acoustic droplet vaporization denotes the phase-change of micron- and sub-micron-sized droplets upon the application of high-amplitude ultrasound. The asymmetric collapse of the incepted vapor bubbles within the droplets can give rise to high-speed liquid microjets. Here, we describe acoustically-driven and bubble-pair jetting arising within the vaporizing droplet, observed experimentally with ultra-high-speed imaging at the microscale. The existence of complex pressure fields due to the continued acoustic wave-droplet interaction and the nucleation of multiple bubbles within the droplet leads to rich dynamics, with the jets presenting behavioral self-similarity to millimetric bubbles under comparable conditions. Evaporative instabilities that develop during bubble growth impede jet formation during bubble collapse. Furthermore, the ability of the jets to pierce the droplet interface and penetrate into the surrounding fluid is discussed. These powerful microjets could be harnessed to induce cell permeabilization for targeted drug delivery and treatment of cancerous tissue.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2026

Measurement of traveling pressure waves inside a droplet

Shock wave-droplet interactions have been receiving increasing attention due to their relevance in aviation fuel combustion and minimally invasive medical treatments, yet quantifying them experimentally remains a challenge. In this study, we propose a background-oriented schlieren (BOS) technique for quantitative spatiotemporal measurements of shock wave-droplet interaction, employing a novel ray-tracing correction, a synchronization system, and a projected background. Underwater shock waves propagating both inside and outside a millimetric perfluorohexane droplet immersed in water are experimentally measured. The quantified density-gradient and pressure fields are compared with numerical simulations, and the BOS measurements-including sound speeds, the shock-focusing location, and the maximum pressure-are found to be in close agreement with the numerical results. Notably, the technique successfully captures the phase shift before and after shock focusing that had previously only been hypothesized.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2026

Cavitation by phase shift of focused shock waves inside a droplet

Localized cavitation in liquids and soft tissues, typically initiated by the rarefaction phase of high-amplitude ultrasound waves, is leveraged in several biomedical applications such as ablation techniques and drug delivery with vaporizing agents. However, safety considerations aimed at avoiding unwanted bubble activity outside the targeted region pose a limit to the maximum allowed peak rarefaction pressure, which on the other hand can hinder the therapeutic efficacy of these techniques. This study shows that a purely compressive shock wave can generate localized, negative pressure and initiate cavitation inside a sub-millimetric perfluorohexane droplet, without requiring any externally applied rarefaction wave. The Gouy phase shift is identified as the physical mechanism responsible for the conversion of positive pressure into tension during shock focusing, and its occurrence is demonstrated through numerical simulations and direct experimental measurements. Comparison of the regions affected by cavitation, visualized \emph{in-situ} by means of high-speed x-ray phase-contrast imaging, with prediction from Classical Nucleation Theory suggests homogeneous nucleation as the underlying mechanism behind bubble formation. The presented findings offer valuable insights into the physics of shock wave propagation which can inspire the development of novel acoustic driving strategies for cavitation generation, facilitating the reduction of negative pressures outside the target region and improving the safety and precision of biomedical treatments.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Translational dynamics of lipid-coated microbubbles driven by ultrasound

Ultrasound-driven microbubbles are increasingly being investigated for both molecular imaging and therapeutic applications. To be effective, these bubbles must be brought into close proximity or direct contact with the target site. Leveraging the acoustic radiation force provides a powerful strategy to direct their movement. In this study, we examine the translational dynamics of a microbubble with unprecedented accuracy by simultaneously time-resolving both its radial and translational responses and by using optical tweezers to study the bubble in free space. Our experimental results show excellent agreement with theoretical predictions for the bubble sizes considered, provided the history drag force is included in the force balance. For the Reynolds numbers considered (up to Re = 2), the zero-Reynolds-number history force performs as well as its finite-Reynolds-number extension. Although non-spherical modes may arise at larger bubble expansions, they do not appear to significantly influence the bubble translational motion. A major finding is that the normalised transport distance of the bubble scales linearly with the normalised volumetric expansion during its oscillation, greatly simplifying the design and analysis of transport strategies. We also investigated bubble stability during transport and observed a marked increase in dissolution rate once a threshold in bubble expansion is exceeded. These insights can be leveraged to develop optimal transport strategies that balance both transport speed and bubble stability for targeted delivery applications.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Shock compression-based equation of state for perfluorohexane

Perfluorohexane is a biocompatible material that serves as a liquid core for acoustically-responsive agents in biomedical applications. Despite its relatively widespread usage, there is a lack of experimental data determining its thermodynamic properties. This challenges numerical simulations to predict the acoustic response of agents developed using this material. In this study, we employ the well-established method of shock compression of materials at relatively high pressures (100--400 MPa) to estimate a kinematic equation of state for perfluorohexane. We use multi-objective optimization to obtain the Noble-Abel Stiffened-Gas equation of state, which is suitable for hydrodynamic numerical simulations. We then apply the extrapolated equation of state to simulate shock-wave propagation within a perfluorohexane droplet showing excellent agreement with equivalent experiments. This validates the equation of state and promotes the use of numerical simulations as a valuable tool for understanding the complex acoustic interactions involved in these biomedical agents, ultimately facilitating their translation for clinical purposes.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Faraday Wave Singularities Trigger Microbubble Jetting

Wall-attached bubbles can produce repeated jets under gentle ultrasound stimulation through the Faraday instability. We identify three distinct jetting regimes defined by the jetting frequency and the bubble surface topology. We demonstrate that these jets form via flow-focusing singularities following two distinct collapse modes of the bubble interface: conical, producing a jet towards the substrate, or parabolic, generating a pair of oppositely directed jets. Scaling laws governing these collapse events are derived, revealing a universal self-similar structure governed by inertia and capillarity. Furthermore, we establish the dependence of the interface acceleration for jetting on driving frequency and characterise the jet speed as a function of Faraday wave height and bubble size. These findings may inform the design of low-power biofilm removal ultrasound systems and contribute to improved safety in targeted drug delivery.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Shape modes and jet formation on ultrasound-driven wall-attached bubbles

Understanding how substrate-attached bubbles respond to ultrasound is important for applications from industrial cleaning to biomedical therapy. Under ultrasonic excitation, bubbles can deform through Faraday instability and periodically emit high-speed jets. Although this behavior is increasingly well understood for free bubbles, the dynamics of wall-attached bubbles remain largely unexplored. In particular, the three-dimensional selection and evolution of non-spherical modes and their relation to jetting have not been resolved. We investigate micrometric air bubbles in contact with a rigid substrate and driven by ultrasound, using a dual-view imaging setup combining top-view bright-field microscopy with side-view phase-contrast X-ray imaging. This approach reveals a stepwise evolution of bubble shape through four regimes: spherical oscillations, harmonic axisymmetric meniscus waves, half-harmonic axisymmetric Faraday waves, and the superposition of half-harmonic sectoral Faraday waves. This contrasts with free bubbles, which jump directly to their final Faraday pattern at instability onset. For the chosen substrate, the observed shape-mode spectrum is degenerate and spans a continuous range of mode degrees, consistent with theoretical predictions based on kinematic arguments. Free bubbles, although also degenerate, remain limited to discrete spherical harmonics. Measured ultrasound pressure thresholds for Faraday instability agree with classical interface-stability theory modified for a rigid boundary. Complementary 3D boundary-element simulations reproduce the observed shape evolution. Finally, we identify the acceleration threshold for cyclic jetting: unlike free bubbles, wall-attached bubbles always jet from the side not constrained by the substrate.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Cyclic jetting enables microbubble-mediated drug delivery

The pursuit of targeted therapies capable of overcoming biological barriers, including the tenacious blood-brain barrier, has spurred the investigation into stimuli-responsive microagents. This approach could improve therapeutic efficacy, reduce undesirable side effects, and open avenues for treating previously incurable diseases. Intravenously-administered ultrasound-responsive microbubbles are one of the most promising agents, having demonstrated potential in several clinical trials. However, the mechanism by which microbubbles enhance drug absorption remains unclear. Here, we reveal through unprecedented time-resolved side-view visualisations that single microbubbles, upon microsecond-long ultrasound driving, puncture the cell membrane and induce drug uptake via stable cyclic microjets. Our theoretical models successfully reproduce the observed bubble and cell dynamic responses. We find that cyclic jets arise from shape instabilities, warranting recognition as a novel class of jets in bubbles, distinct from classical inertial jets driven by pressure gradients. We also establish a threshold for bubble radial expansion beyond which microjets form and facilitate cellular permeation. Remarkably, these microjets occur at ultrasound pressures below 100kPa due to their unique formation mechanism. We show that the stress generated by microjetting surpasses all previously suggested mechanisms by at least an order of magnitude. In summary, this work elucidates the physics behind microbubble-mediated targeted drug delivery and provides criteria for its effective yet safe application.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Positive pressure matters in acoustic droplet vaporization

Acoustically vaporizable droplets are phase-change agents that can improve the effectiveness of ultrasound-based therapies. In this study, we demonstrate that the compression part of an acoustic wave can generate tension that initiates the vaporization. This counter-intuitive process is explained by the occurrence of Gouy phase shift due to the focusing of the acoustic wave inside the droplet. Our analysis unifies the existing theories for acoustic droplet vaporization under a single framework and is supported by experiments and simulations. We use our theory to identify governing parameters that allow to vaporize droplets using predominantly compression waves, which are safer in medical use.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2023

Synchrotron X-ray phase-contrast imaging of ultrasonic drop atomization

Ultrasonic atomization is employed to generate size-controllable droplets for a variety of applications. Here, we minimize the number of parameters dictating the process by studying the atomization of a single drop pending from an ultrasonic horn. Spatiotemporally resolved X-ray phase-contrast imaging measurements show that the number-median sizes of the ejected droplets can be predicted by the linear Navier-Stokes equations, signifying that the size distribution is controlled by the fluid properties and the driving frequency. Experiments with larger pendant water drops indicate that the fluid-structure interaction plays a pivotal role in determining the ejection onset of the pendant drop. The atomization of viscoelastic drops is dictated by extended ligament formation, entrainment of air, and ejection of drop-encapsulated bubbles. Existing scaling laws are used to explain the required higher input amplitudes for the complete atomization of viscoelastic drops as compared to inviscid drops. Finally, we elucidate the differences between capillary wave-based and cavitation-based atomization and show that inducing cavitation and strong bubble oscillations quickens the onset of daughter drop ejection but impedes their size control.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2023

Cavitation cloud formation and surface damage of a model stone in a high-intensity focused ultrasound field

This work investigates the fundamental role of cavitation bubble clouds in stone comminution by focused ultrasound. The fragmentation of stones by ultrasound has applications in medical lithotripsy for the comminution of kidney stones or gall stones, where their fragmentation is widely assumed to result from the high acoustic wave energy. However, high-intensity ultrasound can generate cavitation which is known to contribute to erosion as well and to cause damage away from the target, although the exact contribution of cavitation remains currently unclear. Based on in-situ experimental observations, post-mortem microtomography and acoustic simulations, the present work sheds light on the fundamental role of cavitation bubbles in the stone surface fragmentation by correlating the detected damages to the observed bubble activity. Our results show that not all clouds erode the stone, but only those located in preferential nucleation sites whose locations are herein examined. Furthermore, quantitative characterizations of the bubble clouds and their trajectories within the ultrasonic field are discussed. These include experiments with and without the presence of a model stone in the acoustic path length. Finally, the optimal stone-to-source distance maximizing the cavitation-induced surface damage area has been determined. Assuming the pressure magnitude within the focal region to exceed the cavitation pressure threshold, this location does not correspond to the acoustic focus, where the pressure is maximal, but rather to the region where the acoustic beam and thereby the acoustic cavitation activity near the stone surface is the widest.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2023

Shell viscosity estimation of lipid-coated microbubbles

Understanding the shell rheology of ultrasound contrast agent microbubbles is vital for anticipating their bioeffects in clinical practice. Past studies using sophisticated acoustic and optical techniques have made enormous progress in this direction, enabling the development of shell models that adequately reproduce the nonlinear behaviour of the coated microbubble under acoustic excitation. However, there have also been puzzling discrepancies and missing physical explanations for the dependency of shell viscosity on the equilibrium bubble radius, which demands further experimental investigations. In this study, we aim to unravel the cause of such behaviour by performing a refined characterisation of the shell viscosity. We use ultra-high-speed microscopy imaging, optical trapping and wide-field fluorescence to accurately record the individual microbubble response upon ultrasound driving across a range of bubble sizes. An advanced model of bubble dynamics is validated and employed to infer the shell viscosity of single bubbles from their radial time evolution. The resulting values reveal a prominent variability of the shell viscosity of about an order of magnitude and no dependency on the bubble size, which is contrary to previous studies. We find that the method called bubble spectroscopy, which has been used extensively in the past to determine the shell viscosity, is highly sensitive to methodology inaccuracies, and we demonstrate through analytical arguments that the previously reported unphysical trends are an artifact of these biases. We also show the importance of correct bubble sizing, as errors in this aspect can also lead to unphysical trends in shell viscosity, when estimated through a nonlinear fitting from the time response of the bubble.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Rebounds of deformed cavitation bubbles

Presented here are experiments clarifying how the deformation of cavitation bubbles affects their rebound. Rebound bubbles carry the remaining energy of a bubble following its initial collapse, which dissipates energy mainly through shock waves, jets, and heat. The rebound bubble undergoes its own collapse, generating such violent events anew, which can be even more damaging or effective than at first bubble collapse. However, modeling rebound bubbles is an ongoing challenge because of the lack of knowledge on the exact factors affecting their formation. Here we use single-laser-induced cavitation bubbles and deform them by variable gravity or by a neighboring free surface to quantify the effect of bubble deformation on the rebound bubbles. Within a wide range of deformations, the energy of the rebound bubble follows a logarithmic increase with the bubble's initial dipole deformation, regardless of the origin of this deformation.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Luminescence from cavitation bubbles deformed in uniform pressure gradients

Presented here are observations that demonstrate how the deformation of millimetric cavitation bubbles by a uniform pressure gradient quenches single collapse luminescence. Our innovative measurement system captures a broad luminescence spectrum (wavelength range 300-900 nm) from the individual collapses of laser-induced bubbles in water. By varying the bubble size, driving pressure and the perceived gravity level aboard parabolic flights, we probed the limit from aspherical to highly spherical bubble collapses. Luminescence was detected for bubbles of maximum radii within the previously uncovered range $R_{0}$ =1.5-6 mm for laser-induced bubbles. The relative luminescence energy was found to rapidly decrease as a function of bubble asymmetry quantified by the anisotropy parameter $ζ$, which is the dimensionless equivalent of the Kelvin impulse. As established previously, $ζ$ also dictates the characteristic parameters of bubble-driven microjets. The threshold of $ζ$ beyond which no luminescence is observed in our experiment closely coincides with the threshold where the microjets visibly pierce the bubble and drive a vapor-jet during the rebound. The individual fitted blackbody temperatures range between $T_{\rm lum}$=7000 and 11500 K but do not show any clear trend as a function of $ζ$. Time-resolved measurements using a high-speed photodetector disclose multiple luminescence events at each bubble collapse. The averaged full width at half maximum of the pulse is found to scale with $R_{0}$ and to range between 10-20 ns.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Shock waves from non-spherical cavitation bubbles

We present detailed observations of the shock waves emitted at the collapse of single cavitation bubbles using simultaneous time-resolved shadowgraphy and hydrophone pressure measurements. The geometry of the bubbles is systematically varied from spherical to very non-spherical by decreasing their distance to a free or rigid surface or by modulating the gravity-induced pressure gradient aboard parabolic flights. The non-spherical collapse produces multiple shocks that are clearly associated with different processes, such as the jet impact and the individual collapses of the distinct bubble segments. For bubbles collapsing near a free surface, the energy and timing of each shock are measured separately as a function of the anisotropy parameter $ζ$, which represents the dimensionless equivalent of the Kelvin impulse. For a given source of bubble deformation (free surface, rigid surface or gravity), the normalized shock energy depends only on $ζ$, irrespective of the bubble radius $R_{0}$ and driving pressure $Δp$. Based on this finding, we develop a predictive framework for the peak pressure and energy of shock waves from non-spherical bubble collapses. Combining statistical analysis of the experimental data with theoretical derivations, we find that the shock peak pressures can be estimated as jet impact-induced hammer pressures, expressed as $p_{h} = 0.45\left(ρc^{2}Δp\right)^{1/2} ζ^{-1}$ at $ζ> 10^{-3}$. The same approach is found to explain the shock energy quenching as a function of $ζ^{-2/3}$.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Scaling laws for jets of single cavitation bubbles

Fast liquid jets, called micro-jets, are produced within cavitation bubbles experiencing an aspherical collapse. Here we review micro-jets of different origins, scales and appearances, and propose a unified framework to describe their dynamics by using an anisotropy parameter $ζ$, representing a dimensionless measure of the liquid momentum at the collapse point (Kelvin impulse). This parameter is rigorously defined for various jet drivers, including gravity and nearby boundaries. Combining theoretical considerations with hundreds of high-speed visualisations of bubbles collapsing near a rigid surface, near a free surface or in variable gravity, we classify the jets into three distinct regimes: weak, intermediate and strong. Weak jets ($ζ<10^{-3}$) hardly pierce the bubble, but remain within it throughout the collapse and rebound. Intermediate jets ($10^{-3}<ζ<0.1$) pierce the opposite bubble wall close to the last collapse phase and clearly emerge during the rebound. Strong jets ($ζ>0.1$) pierce the bubble early during the collapse. The dynamics of the jets is analysed through key observables, such as the jet impact time, jet speed, bubble displacement, bubble volume at jet impact and vapour-jet volume. We find that, upon normalising these observables to dimensionless jet parameters, they all reduce to straightforward functions of $ζ$, which we can reproduce numerically using potential flow theory. An interesting consequence of this result is that a measurement of a single observable, such as the bubble displacement, suffices to estimate any other parameter, such as the jet speed. Remarkably, the dimensionless parameters of intermediate and weak jets only depend on $ζ$, not on the jet driver. In the same regime, the jet parameters are found to be well approximated by power-laws of $ζ$, which we explain through analytical arguments.

physics.flu-dyn↗