Does shaking increase the pressure inside a bottle of champagne?

• Opposite to common belief, shaking a bottle of champagne slightly decreases the pressure inside.
• Bubble dynamics are the source of the pressure drop.
• In the purely diffusive regime, the pressure changes as the square root of time.

Colas, beers and sparkling wines are all concentrated solutions of carbon dioxide in aqueous solvents. Any such carbonated liquid is ordinarily conditioned inside a closed bottle or a metal can as a liquid–gas 2-phase system. At thermodynamic equilibrium, the partial pressure of carbon-dioxide in the gas phase and its concentration in the liquid are proportional (Henry’s law). In practical conditions and use (transport, opening of the container, exterior temperature change, etc.), Henry’s equilibrium can be perturbed. The goal of this paper is to describe and understand how the system responds to such perturbations and evolves towards a new equilibrium state. Formally, we investigate the dynamics around Henry’s equilibrium of a closed system, through dedicated experiments and modeling. We focus on the response to a sudden pressure change and to mechanical shaking (the latter point inspired the article’s title). Observations are rationalized through basic considerations including molecular diffusion, bubble dynamics (based on Epstein–Plesset theory) and chemi-convective hydrodynamic instabilities.

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