Antibubble Dynamics: The Drainage of an Air Film with Viscous Interfaces

Abstract

An antibubble is a spherical air film that is immersed in a surfactant mixture and drains under the action of hydrostatic pressure. A dynamical model of this film is proposed that accounts for the surface shear viscosity effects in the case of purely viscous interfaces, which applies for surfactants whose adsorption rate is much larger than advection rate and at a concentration much above the critical micelle concentration. Our model shows that the lifetime of the antibubbles in this case increases with surface shear viscosity, denoted ε, whose value is measured independently, all in agreement with experimental measurements. We also found that the critical thickness, h(c), at film rupture due to van der Waals interactions slightly depends on the surface shear viscosity, namely h(c) ∝ ε(1/6).