Nonlinear energy loss in the oscillations of coated and uncoated bubbles: Role of thermal, radiation damping and encapsulating shell at various excitation pressures

TL;DR

This paper presents a generalized nonlinear model for bubble oscillations that incorporates thermal, radiation, and viscous damping effects, analyzing their roles across various bubble sizes, gases, and pressures, with implications for ultrasound contrast agents.

Contribution

The study introduces a comprehensive nonlinear model that accounts for compressibility and thermal effects in coated and uncoated bubbles, providing new insights into damping mechanisms at different pressures.

Findings

Thermal damping dominates for large uncoated air bubbles.

Radiation damping becomes dominant at higher pressures.

Thermal effects can be neglected in coated C3F8 bubbles used in medical ultrasound.

Abstract

A simple generalized model (GM) for coated bubbles accounting for the effect of compressibility of the liquid is presented. The GM was then coupled with nonlinear ODEs that account for the thermal effects. Starting with mass and momentum conservation equations for a bubbly liquid and using the GM, nonlinear pressure dependent terms were derived for energy dissipation due to thermal damping (Td), radiation damping (Rd) and dissipation due to the viscosity of liquid (Ld) and coating (Cd). The dissipated energies were solved for uncoated and coated 2- 20 $\mu m$ bubbles over a frequency range of $0.25f_r-2.5f_r$ ($f_r$ is the bubble resonance) and for various acoustic pressures (1kPa-300kPa). Thermal effects were examined for air and C3F8 gas cores in each case. For uncoated bubbles with an air gas core and a diameter larger than 4 $\mu m$, thermal damping is the strongest damping factor. When pressure increases, the contributions of Rd grow faster and become the dominant damping mechanism for pressure dependent resonance frequencies (e.g. fundamental and super harmonic resonances). For coated bubbles, Cd is the strongest damping mechanism. As pressure increases Rd contributes more to damping compared to Ld and Td. In case of air bubbles, as pressure increases, the linear thermal model largely deviates from the nonlinear model and accurate modeling requires inclusion of the full thermal model. However, for coated C3F8 bubbles of diameter 1-8 $\mu m$, typically used in medical ultrasound, thermal effects maybe neglected even at higher pressures. We show that the scattering to damping ratio (STDR), a measure of the effectiveness of the bubble as contrast agent, is pressure dependent and can be maximized for specific frequency ranges and pressures.