The effect of high viscosity on compressible and incompressible Rayleigh–Plesset-type bubble models

•Spherical gas bubbles in glycerol have been examined numerically and experimentally.•The bubble was generated using a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser.•The radius was measured with a novel shadowing technique of a He–Ne laser beam.•The measurements were compared with a compressible and an incompressible bubble models.•The validity domain of the incompressible assumption has been given.

Free oscillations of a single spherical gas bubble in glycerol have been examined numerically and experimentally at different ambient temperatures and pressures. The bubble was generated using a Q-switched Nd:YAG laser and the unsteady radius measurement was based on a shadowing technique of a He–Ne laser beam. The measurements were compared to computations obtained from two models, first taking into consideration the liquid compressibility and then assuming an incompressible liquid domain, respectively. In both cases the temperature fields inside and outside the bubble were computed by solving the energy equation in both phases as the thermodynamic processes have great importance to the bubble behavior. For high amplitude oscillations the incompressible model provides poor agreement with the measurements and the modeling of the liquid compressibility becomes necessary. In contrast to the standard method, a practical region of applicability for the incompressible approach was determined as a function of the instantaneous Mach and Reynolds numbers, rather than specifying a simple threshold Mach number.