Gas bubble dynamics in soft materials

Understand

Epstein and Plesset's seminal work on the rate of gas bubble dissolution and growth in a simple liquid is generalized to render it applicable to a gas bubble embedded in a soft elastic medium.

• Both the underlying diffusion equation and the expression for the gas bubble pressure were modified to allow for the non-zero shear modulus of the elastic medium.
• The extension of the diffusion equation results in a trivial shift (by an additive constant) in the value of the diffusion coefficient, and does not change the form of the rate equations.
• But the use of a Generalized Young-Laplace equation for the bubble pressure resulted in significant differences on the dynamics of bubble dissolution and growth, relative to a simple liquid medium.