1 Introduction
An acoustic wave propagating through a medium can generate a steady streaming flow, in addition to the sinusoidal movement of the fluid particles, especially near vibrating elements and bounding walls (Nyborg Reference Nyborg1953, Reference Nyborg1958; Riley Reference Riley2001; Tho, Manasseh & Ooi Reference Tho, Manasseh and Ooi2007). Streaming flows when associated with an acoustically excited microbubble are called microstreaming. They have been observed near a surface (Kolb & Nyborg Reference Kolb and Nyborg1956), and implicated in numerous harmful and beneficial bioeffects – haemolysis (bursting of red blood cells) (Rooney Reference Rooney1970; Marmottant & Hilgenfeldt Reference Marmottant and Hilgenfeldt2003; Pommella et al. Reference Pommella, Brooks, Seddon and Garbin2015), sonoporation (transient pore formation on cell walls under ultrasound excitation) (Fan, Kumon & Deng Reference Fan, Kumon and Deng2014; Aliabouzar, Zhang & Sarkar Reference Aliabouzar, Zhang and Sarkar2016), drug delivery (Lentacker, De Smedt & Sanders Reference Lentacker, De Smedt and Sanders2009) and bone healing (Katiyar, Duncan & Sarkar Reference Katiyar, Duncan and Sarkar2014; Aliabouzar et al. Reference Aliabouzar, Zhang and Sarkar2016; Zhou et al. Reference Zhou, Castro, Zhu, Cui, Aliabouzar, Sarkar and Zhang2016; Aliabouzar et al. Reference Aliabouzar, Lee, Zhou, Zhang and Sarkar2018) – as well as in microfluidics transport (Wang, Jalikop & Hilgenfeldt Reference Wang, Jalikop and Hilgenfeldt2012), micromixing and acoustic cleaning (Liu & Wu Reference Liu and Wu2009; Orbay et al. Reference Orbay, Ozcelik, Lata, Kaynak, Wu and Huang2016). There have also been extensive theoretical and numerical studies elucidating the phenomena (Nyborg Reference Nyborg1958; Wu & Du Reference Wu and Du1997; Riley Reference Riley2001; Doinikov & Bouakaz Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2010a ,Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz b , Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2014; Rallabandi, Wang & Hilgenfeldt Reference Rallabandi, Wang and Hilgenfeldt2014; Mobadersany & Sarkar Reference Mobadersany and Sarkar2018). Recent theoretical studies mostly focused on either the streaming motion near an oscillating bubble in the bulk (Wu & Du Reference Wu and Du1997; Liu & Wu Reference Liu and Wu2009; Doinikov & Bouakaz Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2010a ,Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz b ) – which might be enhanced due to the presence of a distant wall (Doinikov & Bouakaz Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2014) – or the motion near an oscillating bubble attached to the wall (Rallabandi et al. Reference Rallabandi, Wang and Hilgenfeldt2014, Reference Rallabandi, Marin, Rossi, Kahler and Hilgenfeldt2015). Here, we investigate the streaming motion, specifically the closed circular streamlines, due to the periodic oscillations of a bubble near but detached from a plane wall revisiting the classical analysis of Nyborg (Nyborg Reference Nyborg1958).
Lord Rayleigh (Rayleigh Reference Rayleigh1945) provided the first theoretical explanation of the acoustic streaming phenomena observed in Kundt’s tube as arising from the time-averaged nonlinear advection terms,
$-\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}\langle \boldsymbol{u}^{(1)}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{u}^{(1)}\rangle _{t}$
(
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}$
is density) due to small oscillatory motion
$\boldsymbol{u}^{(1)}$
, acting as an inhomogeneous forcing term for the second-order equation of motion. This was followed in the 1950s by a series of pioneering studies (Westervelt Reference Westervelt1953; Nyborg Reference Nyborg1958; Lighthill Reference Lighthill1978) that strengthened its theoretical underpinning. Specifically, Nyborg provided a generalized perturbative analysis of the streaming velocity near a boundary and offered expressions for the induced stresses under various conditions, which have been widely used in the literature. Most often an average expression of shear stress –
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}u_{L}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$
, where
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$
is the viscosity,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}$
the density,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}=\sqrt{\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}/\unicode[STIX]{x03C0}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}f}$
the Stokes boundary layer thickness,
$f$
the frequency and
$u_{L}$
the limiting streaming velocity at the edge of the boundary layer – was used. Rooney (Reference Rooney1970) experimentally observed haemolysis of red blood cells due to a pulsating (20 kHz) cylindrical bubble (
$260~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$
) resting on a surface, and used this expression along with a point source in a wall representation of the bubble to determine the critical shear stress (
${\sim}4500~\text{dyn}~\text{cm}^{-2}$
) for haemolysis. Lewin & Bjorno (Reference Lewin and Bjorno1982) computed the motion of micrometre-sized bubbles excited at megahertz frequencies using the Rayleigh–Plesset equation, and used the Nyborg expression to estimate a streaming shear stress of 1.3 kPa on the attached cell membranes with bubble radius of
$1~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$
and 20 kPa–3.6 MHz stimulation. Wu (Reference Wu2002) used a modified Rayleigh–Plesset equation with a shell model due to de Jong, Cornet & Lancee (Reference de Jong, Cornet and Lancee1994) and the same expression to show that it can predict a shear stress (
${\sim}$
12 Pa) in the streaming field of an Optison contrast microbubble at
${\sim}$
0.1 MPa and 1 or 2 MHz excitation, which is sufficient for reparable sonoporation in a living cell. Forbes & O’Brien (Reference Forbes and O’Brien2012) used a similar analysis using the Marmottant model (Marmottant et al.
Reference Marmottant, van der Meer, Emmer, Versluis, de Jong, Hilgenfeldt and Lohse2005) for the shell to predict an increase of sonoporation activity with excitation, maximum sonoporation and its drop-off after collapse.
Wu & Du (Reference Wu and Du1997) computed the microstreaming flow field inside and outside an isolated microbubble oscillating in the field of a plane ultrasound wave by accounting for the monopole volume pulsation and the dipole translation motion in the spherical geometry. The results later were further generalized by removing restrictions on bubble size relative to the wavelength and considering viscous effects in the whole domain (Doinikov & Bouakaz Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2010a ,Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz b ). Detailed analytical theories have also been developed by Doinikov & Bouakaz (Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2014) to show that the microstreaming near an oscillating bubble increases considerably due to the presence of a distant rigid wall or in the presence of a second bubble (Doinikov & Bouakaz Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2016), especially when they are driven at their resonance frequency.
Here, we consider microstreaming near a rigid wall due to a nearby oscillating microbubble detached from a nearby rigid wall. Krasovitski & Kimmel (Reference Krasovitski and Kimmel2004) were the first to consider such a case; they used an axisymmetric boundary element method to obtain the first-order oscillating potential flow
$\boldsymbol{u}^{(1)}$
and then they used the Nyborg expression to compute the shear stress on the plane wall. Recognizing that typically the streaming motion is generated by small-amplitude oscillation, Doinikov & Bouakaz (Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2010a
,Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz
b
) used the linearized Rayleigh–Plesset equation to obtain the first-order velocity in a pioneering theoretical study of sonoporation. They also used the Nyborg expression to compute the shear stress, and under a number of reasonable assumptions provided an expression for sonoporation efficiency in a bubble-cell suspension. However, none of the past studies investigated closed streamlines of the microstreaming flow field near the wall due to a detached oscillating bubble. On the other hand, an array of different streaming motions have been observed with varying viscosity and excitation amplitude (Elder Reference Elder1959), including flow direction reversal or secondary inner circulation over a vibrating tip (Kolb & Nyborg Reference Kolb and Nyborg1956). Different streaming flows – vortex, dipolar or quadrupolar – were observed for a larger (radius
$230{-}270~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$
) bubble excited at lower (2–9 kHz) frequencies (Tho et al.
Reference Tho, Manasseh and Ooi2007; Collis et al.
Reference Collis, Manasseh, Liovic, Tho, Ooi, Petkovic-Duran and Zhu2010; Thameem, Rallabandi & Hilgenfeldt Reference Thameem, Rallabandi and Hilgenfeldt2016). Collis et al. argued that a streaming motion pattern can be utilized to improve sonoporation and sonothrombolysis. Miller (Reference Miller1988) noted a streaming flow radially inward over an ultrasonically activated micropore, rather than outward as expected from the theory. For a two-dimensional bubble attached to a wall, detailed analysis and experiments showed both ‘fountain’ (streamlines inward at the wall) and ‘anti-fountain’ (streamlines outward at the wall) flows are possible depending on the excitation frequency (Rallabandi et al.
Reference Rallabandi, Wang and Hilgenfeldt2014). Such diversity of streaming motions and their possible applications in medical and microfluidic technology underscore the importance of a detailed study of the streamline pattern.
In this study, we offer an analytical description of the streamlines due to a free as well as a coated ultrasound contrast microbubble undergoing small-amplitude oscillation near a rigid plane wall, investigating the dependence of the phenomenon on different flow parameters. Given the importance of Nyborg’s classic analysis of the streaming phenomenon, his results were obtained recasting the analysis in the standard terminology of the modern perturbation method justifying in detail the order of various terms, and their retention and elimination. The novelty of the present study stems from the computation of the vertical component of the streaming velocity that has been used to plot for the first time the closed Eulerian and Lagrangian streamlines of the vortex structure of the microstreaming flows along the wall for both free and coated bubbles. The length and width of the vortex structure were studied relating them to the flow geometry. An objective vortex identification scheme, the d-2 method (Vollmers Reference Vollmers2001), is used to determine the spatial extent of the vortex and the circulation. The variation of circulation and vorticity was related to that of the shear stress at the wall.

Figure 1. Schematic of the problem.
2 Mathematical formulation
We investigate the microstreaming phenomenon over a wall due to an oscillating bubble of initial radius
$R_{0}$
at a distance
$h$
from the wall (figure 1). Theoretical analysis of microstreaming solves the governing equations by a perturbative method (Nyborg Reference Nyborg1953, Reference Nyborg1958):

The first-order approximation
$\boldsymbol{u}^{(1)}$
solves the linearized equation neglecting the nonlinear advection terms and obtains a sinusoidal velocity. To properly understand the perturbative nature of the problem, we note that for a bubble of initial radius
$R_{0}$
executing oscillation with a small amplitude
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}R_{0}$
,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}\ll 1,\boldsymbol{u}^{(1)}\sim U=\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}R_{0},\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}=2\unicode[STIX]{x03C0}f$
. At the second order, the convective nonlinear term, quadratic product of
$\boldsymbol{u}^{(1)}$
, appears as a forcing term, with the equation upon averaging becoming

with
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$
being the fluid intensity and viscosity. Here
$\langle \,\rangle _{t}$
is the average over the time period of the oscillating excitation. Note that the resulting streaming motion has been named Rayleigh–Nyborg–Westervelt streaming by Lighthill (Reference Lighthill1978) in contrast to Stuart streaming (Stuart Reference Stuart1966). The underlying approximation is only valid when bubble streaming Reynolds number
$Re_{bs}$
is small. In anticipation of the streaming velocity
${\sim}U^{2}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}R_{0}$
(see equation (2.22) below) and the length scale
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}=\sqrt{2\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}}$
(
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}$
), one obtains (Davidson & Riley Reference Davidson and Riley1971; Marmottant & Hilgenfeldt Reference Marmottant and Hilgenfeldt2003)
$Re_{bs}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}^{2}(2\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}R_{0}^{2}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D708})^{1/2}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}^{2}(2Re_{b})^{1/2}$
, with
$Re_{b}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}R_{0}^{2}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}$
being the Reynolds number of the bubble motion. We will later show that
$Re_{bs}$
is small in the present case.
An oscillating bubble near a wall experiences a secondary attractive Bjerknes force towards the wall due to the wall-induced image bubble. The force is second order in nature and would introduce a translation towards the wall. We have neglected this effect here as was done in many studies in the literature (Doinikov & Bouakaz Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2014). Batchelor (Reference Batchelor1967) offered a potential flow estimation of the force using the virtual mass
$2\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}\unicode[STIX]{x03C0}R_{0}^{3}/3$
of the bubble situated at distance
$h$
from the wall to be
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}^{2}\unicode[STIX]{x03C0}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}^{2}R_{0}^{6}/(2h^{2})$
. Equating with the Stokes drag, one obtains a velocity of
$U/\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}R_{0}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}^{2}Re_{b}/[12(h/R)^{2}]$
. For sufficiently small
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}$
and large
$h/R$
(these are also the assumptions for this analysis of Bjerknes force to be valid), this velocity remains small for the stationary bubble assumption adopted here to be valid. The boundary layer being
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}=\sqrt{2\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}}$
, the steady viscous streaming field examined here can be expected to be established within a few time periods (
${\sim}\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}^{-1}$
) as was observed in experiment (personal communication with Professor Rallabandi). Close to the wall, the bubble oscillation would cease to be spherical; it would experience shape oscillations and complex streaming patterns that, in the case of a drug-loaded contrast microbubble, can enhance the transport of drugs (Lajoinie et al.
Reference Lajoinie, Luan, Gelderblom, Dollet, Mastik, Dewitte, Lentacker, de Jong and Versluis2018).
Averaging the quadratic term in (2.2) gives rise to a steady force that drives the streaming motion. Nyborg (Reference Nyborg1958) noted that the formal solution of this problem requires that boundary conditions be satisfied on the exact boundary, which is possible only for simple boundaries (plane, hemisphere, etc.) with the simplest velocity distributions on them (see Fabre et al. (Reference Fabre, Jalal, Leontini and Manasseh2017) where the authors had to resort to finite-element solution for the first- and the second-order problems between two spheres). For a more general situation, Nyborg sought an alternative method. Following an earlier investigation of Schlicting (Reference Schlicting1979), he made a key observation that one does not need the solution for the entire region (with dimension
$L$
, here equal to
$R_{0}$
), but only in the near-boundary region (dimension
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$
). With a number of ingenious approximations, Nyborg was able to obtain an expression of the streaming motion that depends on the surface values of the potential part of the first-order velocity. Nyborg’s description of the pioneering work was often terse, intuitive without adequate reasoning for the assumed order of the terms and their retention, and based on a formulation with a finite sound speed later simplified using an ‘approximate incompressibility’ assumption. Furthermore, it was solved in Cartesian coordinates allowing modifications for slight curvilinearity. We provide a description of the mathematical derivation in radial coordinates under the assumption of axisymmetry detailing the various approximations which would be helpful for understanding several key features of the perturbative approach.
2.1 Linear oscillatory field at first order
The fluid velocity and pressure
$\boldsymbol{u}(\boldsymbol{x},t)$
and pressure
$p(\boldsymbol{x},t)$
solve the Navier–Stokes equation

with
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}$
being the kinematic viscosity. With the perturbation expansion (2.1), and using a time-periodic expression for the first-order field

one obtains for the momentum equation at
$O(\unicode[STIX]{x1D700})$

Equation (2.5) is solved using a Helmholtz decomposition

Note that the generality of the Nyborg formulation (Nyborg Reference Nyborg1958) is premised on finding the velocity in terms of values of the potential component
$\boldsymbol{u}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$
and its derivative at the boundary. The vortical part
$\boldsymbol{u}_{A}$
satisfies

where the sign of
$H$
was chosen for decaying solution of
$\exp (-\text{i}Hz)$
. The solution has the typical structure of Stokes boundary layer for an oscillatory outer driving flow
$\boldsymbol{u}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$
(of order
${\sim}U$
and varying in a large scale
${\sim}L$
) near a wall with boundary layer thickness
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}=1/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}\ll L$
. We seek solution
$(u,w)$
in an axisymmetric geometry. Accordingly, the solution of the radial component
$u_{A}$
is straightforward and chosen to ensure a zero tangential velocity countering
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$
as

It satisfies (2.7). The axial component
$w_{A}$
is chosen as

Due to (2.6),
$w_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$
are harmonic, and therefore (2.9) satisfies (2.7). We note that

to obtain

the last term being higher order in the small quantity
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}/L$
compared to the first two terms and therefore was neglected here as well as below (effectively
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$
being treated as approximately a constant). The velocity
$\boldsymbol{u}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}+\boldsymbol{u}_{A}$
however does not satisfy the zero normal velocity condition at
$z=0$
due to
$w_{A}$
. Correcting for that, a modified total first-order velocity is found as

keeping in mind that the non-decaying
$w_{c}$
is only meaningful while considering the velocity field in the small boundary layer region. Therefore, one obtains the time-periodic first-order velocity field (superscript
$^{(1)}$
indicates the corresponding term with periodic time dependence included):

This expression is consistent with Nyborg (Reference Nyborg1958).
2.2 Streaming at second order
At the second order, one observes the forcing term
$\boldsymbol{F}$
on the right-hand side of the average Stokes equation (2.2). As was noted by Nyborg, quadratic product of the irrotational part
$\boldsymbol{u}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}$
does not contribute to streaming and can balance the pressure gradient term as in Bernoulli term

reducing (2.2) into

Therefore, the forcing term in the
$r$
-direction becomes

Noting the order of terms

and neglecting higher order in
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}/L$
, we obtain

Each term on the right-hand side is
$O(U^{2}/L)$
. In an effort to express each term in terms of
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x2202}_{r}u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{(1)}$
, following Nyborg, we express the odd term
$w_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$
in (2.13) as

Note that with (2.19)
$w_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}\sim \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}U/L$
and therefore
$w_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{(1)}\unicode[STIX]{x2202}_{z}u_{A}^{(1)}$
in (2.18) is also
$O(U^{2}/L)$
consistent with the other terms there. After substituting (2.13) in (2.18) averaging over time, one obtains

In the governing equation (2.15) in the second order, we note that the vertical (
$z$
) derivative is larger than the transverse (
$r$
) derivative by
$O(L/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF})$
to obtain

Integrating and noting (2.9), we get

as was also found by Nyborg (Reference Nyborg1958).
The vertical component of streaming velocity
$\langle w^{(2)}\rangle _{t}$
– not found in the literature but critical for plotting streamlines – is obtained by using the equation of mass conservation and taking into account the no-slip condition on the rigid wall:

Here the
$z$
-dependence of
$\unicode[STIX]{x2202}u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{2}/\unicode[STIX]{x2202}r$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x2202}^{2}u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{2}/\unicode[STIX]{x2202}r^{2}$
is neglected in the boundary layer similar to what was assumed in (2.20). The acoustic streaming velocity field is therefore known in terms of the outer irrotational velocity field. One can compute the shear stress on the wall (Nyborg Reference Nyborg1958) as

2.3 Lagrangian streaming velocity
For comparison with the average path of a tracer particle, it was noted before that one would also need to find the Lagrangian or particle-averaged streaming velocity (Nyborg Reference Nyborg1958) which contains an additional Stokes drift term

expressed in terms of the first-order velocity given in (2.13). For the radial component, one can obtain

Using (2.19) and (2.17), we realize that the second, third and fourth terms involving
$\unicode[STIX]{x2202}_{z}u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{(1)}$
are higher order in the small quantity
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}/L$
than the others. The first term is identically zero. We obtain

Nyborg (Reference Nyborg1958) stressed that the vertical component is much smaller. However, it is critical for computing the streamlines and can be found by using continuity:

Note that Raney, Corelli & Westervelt (Reference Raney, Corelli and Westervelt1954) found that adding this correction improved the comparison of theory with experimental observation of streaming near a cylinder.
2.4 Potential velocity
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$
due to oscillating bubble above a rigid surface
The problem of a bubble of initial radius
$R_{0}$
near a plane rigid wall at a distance
$h$
from the wall is equivalent to two bubbles of the same initial radius separated by a distance of
$2h$
; it satisfies the impermeability condition in the plane of the rigid wall.
The velocity potential
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$
of the fluid around the microbubble is

where
$S_{1}$
and
$S_{2}$
are the distances from the centre of the real and image microbubbles to the desired location in the fluid and
${\dot{R}}$
and
$R$
are the velocity and instantaneous radius of the microbubble. The radial and vertical components of the irrotational velocity
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}$
are

Here
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$
and
$w_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$
are time-independent parts of the potential velocity components in radial and vertical directions and
$r$
and
$z$
are the radial and vertical coordinates. The instantaneous bubble radius
$R$
and velocity
${\dot{R}}$
are described by the Rayleigh–Plesset-type equation

Here
$P_{b}$
is the fluid pressure adjacent to the microbubble,
$P_{0}$
is the ambient pressure (100 kPa) and
$P_{ex}$
is the ultrasound excitation amplitude. Parameter
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}$
is the gas–fluid surface tension,
$P_{g_{0}}$
is the initial gas pressure inside the microbubble and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}$
is the polytropic constant. Note that the impermeability at the wall is accounted for by the effect of the wall being considered as a pressure
$P_{sc}(h,t)$
scattered from the image bubble located at a distance
$2h$
from the real bubble.
2.5 Linearized bubble dynamics and streaming fields
Assuming that the microbubble is pulsating with a small amplitude
$R=R_{0}(1+x)$
, equation (2.31) is linearized in
$x$
. Non-dimensionalizing
$t$
and
$P_{ex}$
as
$t^{\ast }=t\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}$
and
$P_{ex}^{\ast }=P_{ex}/P_{0}$
results in an equation of damped harmonic oscillator

where

are the characteristic Reynolds (we have taken
$R_{0}\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}$
as the velocity scale), Euler and Weber numbers. And

where
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{0}$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}_{t}$
are the circular natural frequency and the damping term of the microbubble. Note that the natural frequency is modified due to the presence of the wall by the factor
$(1+R_{0}/2h)^{-1}$
. The analytical solution of equation (2.32) in the steady region is

where
$Z_{m}=\sqrt{(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}_{t}\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{0}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D714})^{2}+(1/\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}^{4})(\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{0}^{2}-\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}^{2})^{2}}$
is the non-dimensional absolute value of impedance and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}$
is the oscillation phase that can be absorbed by redefining time as
$t^{\prime }=t^{\ast }+\unicode[STIX]{x1D719}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}$
. As a result the irrotational velocity
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}$
from equation (2.30), when non-dimensionalized by
$R_{0}\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}$
, becomes


with a similar expression for
$w_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }$
. Note that in conformity with the approximation that
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }$
varies in a larger scale (
$h$
and
$R_{0}$
) compared to the boundary layer thickness
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$
, the expressions were evaluated at the wall
$z=0$
. Correspondingly, shear stress (2.24) non-dimensionalized with respect to
$P_{0}$
becomes

2.6 Effects of translation of microbubble
An oscillating microbubble translates towards the wall due to Bjerknes force as has been carefully analysed by Doinikov & Bouakaz (Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2014). The velocity potential is modified by an additional dipole term

Corresponding linearized non-dimensional potential velocity in the radial direction is also modified as

where
$b^{l}$
is given by (Doinikov & Bouakaz Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2014)

We note that the faster decay with
$r^{\ast }$
characteristic of a dipole makes the translational part much smaller at larger radial distance. Also at smaller
$r^{\ast }\ll 1$
, the translational part is smaller than the radial part by a factor of
$3/4h^{\ast 3}$
. For separation distances of the microbubble from the wall
$h\geqslant 2R_{0}$
, this factor is quite small, and therefore the effect of translation here has not been considered, except briefly. However, note that it can easily be accounted for using the expression (2.41).
2.7 Effects of the shell on a contrast microbubble
Microbubbles (size
${\sim}1{-}10~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$
) used for contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging (Goldberg, Raichlen & Forsberg Reference Goldberg, Raichlen and Forsberg2001; Paul et al.
Reference Paul, Nahire, Mallik and Sarkar2014) are coated by a monolayer of lipids, proteins or other surface-active molecules to stabilize them against premature dissolution due to gas diffusion (Katiyar, Sarkar & Jain Reference Katiyar, Sarkar and Jain2009; Sarkar, Katiyar & Jain Reference Sarkar, Katiyar and Jain2009). There have been numerous models of contrast microbubble coating (de Jong et al.
Reference de Jong, Hoff, Skotland and Bom1992; Church Reference Church1995; Hoff, Sontum & Hovem Reference Hoff, Sontum and Hovem2000; Chatterjee & Sarkar Reference Chatterjee and Sarkar2003; Marmottant et al.
Reference Marmottant, van der Meer, Emmer, Versluis, de Jong, Hilgenfeldt and Lohse2005; Sarkar et al.
Reference Sarkar, Shi, Chatterjee and Forsberg2005; Tsiglifis & Pelekasis Reference Tsiglifis and Pelekasis2008; Paul et al.
Reference Paul, Katiyar, Sarkar, Chatterjee, Shi and Forsberg2010). We have recently shown that most of these models can be expressed as an interfacial rheological model with an effective surface tension
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}(R)$
and an effective dilatational viscosity
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}^{s}(R)$
(Katiyar & Sarkar Reference Katiyar and Sarkar2011). Here we have used a strain-softening model called the exponential elasticity model (Paul et al.
Reference Paul, Katiyar, Sarkar, Chatterjee, Shi and Forsberg2010):

where
$E^{s}$
is the shell dilatational elasticity,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}^{s}$
is the change in area fraction from the equilibrium radius
$R_{E}=R_{0}[1+(1-\sqrt{1+4\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{0}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}^{s}/E_{0}^{s}})/2\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}^{s}]^{-1/2}$
, and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{0}$
,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}^{s}$
and
$E_{0}^{s}$
are material properties of the coating. We have demonstrated how these characteristic properties for a microbubble contrast agent can be measured through acoustic experiments (Paul et al.
Reference Paul, Katiyar, Sarkar, Chatterjee, Shi and Forsberg2010, Reference Paul, Russakow, Rodgers, Sarkar, Cochran and Wheatley2013; Kumar & Sarkar Reference Kumar and Sarkar2015; Xia, Porter & Sarkar Reference Xia, Porter and Sarkar2015; Kumar & Sarkar Reference Kumar and Sarkar2016). For example, for contrast agent Sonazoid, they are
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{0}=0.019~\text{N}~\text{m}^{-1}$
,
$E_{0}^{s}=0.55~\text{N}~\text{m}^{-1}$
,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}^{s}=1.5$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}^{s}=1.2\times 10^{-8}~\text{N}~\text{s}~\text{m}^{-1}$
. As a result of the coating stresses, equations (2.34) become

where
$We_{b}^{s}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}R_{0}^{3}\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}^{2}/E_{0}^{s}$
,
$Re_{b}^{s}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}R_{0}^{3}\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}^{s}$
,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{0}/E_{0}^{s}$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}^{s}$
are the non-dimensional numbers related to the coating parameters. We have shown that different models of coating often give rise to qualitatively similar behaviours (Kumar & Sarkar Reference Kumar and Sarkar2015; Xia et al.
Reference Xia, Porter and Sarkar2015; Kumar & Sarkar Reference Kumar and Sarkar2016) even for nonlinear response. We expect that they would vary very little in their predictions of linear dynamics.
2.8 Circulation of the ring vortex in microstreaming flow
Microstreaming gives rise to an axisymmetric vortex ring near the wall (see figure 5). We compute the circulation of the vortex ring, a single quantitative scalar measure of the vortex, in the
$r$
–
$z$
plane using the Stokes theorem. However, it requires us to objectively define the spatial extent of the vortex. The problem of a quantitative and objective identification of vortices has been a major issue in experimentally measured velocity data in turbulent flows. In fact although vortices are ubiquitous, there is no universally accepted definition of a ‘vortex’ (Chakraborty, Balachandar & Adrian Reference Chakraborty, Balachandar and Adrian2005). The problem can be appreciated by noting that simple shear has vorticity, yet does not contain a vortex. A local method of vortex identification obtains a point function that classifies the point to be outside or inside a vortex. The criterion being completely defined by the local velocity gradient is Galilean invariant. There have been many local methods proposed in the literature and their relative merits, specifically their utility in identifying vortical structures in complex turbulent flow measurements, have been investigated in detail (Chakraborty et al.
Reference Chakraborty, Balachandar and Adrian2005). Here, we apply the d2 method (discriminant of non-real eigenvalues of velocity gradient tensor) (Vollmers Reference Vollmers2001) principally for its ease of use in two-dimensional data. It is a Galilean-invariant method that distinguishes vortical structures from boundary layers and shear layers (Najjari & Plesniak Reference Najjari and Plesniak2016). A negative value of
$d_{2}$
corresponds to the non-real eigenvalue of velocity gradient and indicates a vortex region:

where

We compute the total circulation by detecting the vortex region using the d2 method, and then numerically integrating:

which can be non-dimensionalized by
$R_{0}^{2}\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}$
to obtain the non-dimensional circulation
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}^{\ast }$
.

Figure 2. The radial pulsation of the free microbubble when
$Re_{b}=48$
,
$Eu_{b}=0.11,We_{b}=20,h/R_{0}=2$
.
3 Results and discussion
3.1 Microstreaming due to free bubble oscillation
Although the analysis delineated here is valid for different bubble radius and excitation parameters, we are primarily interested in microbubble-based contrast-enhanced ultrasound imaging and drug delivery applications with
$R_{0}$
of the order of micrometres and
$f_{ex}$
in the megahertz range. Specifically, we consider the case of
$R_{0}=1.6~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$
, the average radius of the contrast agent Sonazoid (Sontum et al.
Reference Sontum, Ostensen, Dyrstad and Hoff1999; Sontum Reference Sontum2008), at an excitation frequency of 3 MHz. The driving amplitude was chosen to be small enough,
$P_{ex}=70~\text{kPa}$
(
$P_{ex}^{\ast }=0.7$
), to ensure linear oscillation, giving rise to
$Re_{b}=48$
,
$Eu_{b}=0.11$
and
$We_{b}=20$
. Figure 2 shows the radial pulsation of the microbubble with non-dimensional time located at
$h=2R_{0}$
obtained solving the full Rayleigh–Plesset equation (2.31) using a standard Matlab solver, ode15s. The eventual periodic oscillation with a non-dimensional amplitude
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}=0,11$
seen here is also predicted by the linearized form (2.35) demonstrating that the excitation is small enough for linear dynamics, and the linear analysis is valid. Note that the bubble streaming Reynolds number
$Re_{bs}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}^{2}(2Re_{b})^{1/2}=0.12$
. We also check the approximation made in neglecting the
$z$
-variation of
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }$
(varying in a scale
$R_{0}$
) inside the boundary layer.

Figure 3. The non-dimensional irrotational velocity at
$z=0$
and
$z=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$
for
$h=1.5R_{0},h=2R_{0},h=3R_{0}$
when
$Re_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11,We_{b}=20$
,
$P_{ex}^{\ast }=0.7$
.
In figure 3, we plot
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }$
at
$z=0$
and at
$z=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$
for three different separations
$h=1.5R_{0}$
,
$h=2R_{0}$
and
$h=3R_{0}$
. We note that the variation is small for all cases, being largest for the smallest separation
$h=1.5R_{0}$
. Therefore the approximation adopted here –
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }(z=0)$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x2202}u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }(z=0)$
in (2.36) and (2.37) – following Nyborg (Reference Nyborg1958) is justified. The average streaming velocity (2.22) and (2.23) can be written in terms of the irrotational component of the first-order oscillating velocity
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }$
. Figure 4 shows the streamlines of
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }$
surrounding the microbubble at two different non-dimensional times corresponding to microbubble expansion and compression.

Figure 4. The irrotational velocity around the free microbubble when
$Re_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11,We_{b}=20,h/R_{0}=2$
,
$P_{ex}^{\ast }=0.7$
: (a) expansion; (b) compression.
We plot the streamlines of microstreaming velocities
$\langle u^{(2)}\rangle _{t}$
and
$\langle w^{(2)}\rangle _{t}$
according to equations (2.22) and (2.23) in figures 5(a) and 5(b) for two locations of the microbubble at
$h=2R_{0}$
and
$h=3R_{0}$
, respectively. This case is the same one discussed before for
$\text{Re}_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11,We_{b}=20$
. They show the cross-sectional plot of the axisymmetric ring vortex over the wall. Inside the vortex, the flow near the wall is directed radially outward, while it is directed inward beyond the vortex length. The vortex ring extends up to
$r^{\ast }=1.41$
and
$r^{\ast }=2.12$
defining
$l_{vortex}$
along the wall for the cases
$h=2R_{0}$
and
$h=3R_{0}$
respectively. Length
$l_{vortex}$
increases with
$h^{\ast }=h/R_{0}$
.
To understand the generation of the vortex we examine (2.2) showing
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}\langle \boldsymbol{u}^{(1)}\boldsymbol{\cdot }\unicode[STIX]{x1D735}\boldsymbol{u}^{(1)}\rangle _{t}$
driving the Stokes equation for the streaming velocity. In particular, one sees that
$F_{r}$
in (2.20) is primarily dominated by the first term proportional to
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }\unicode[STIX]{x2202}_{r}u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }$
(the second term proportional to
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}z$
is small and zero at the wall). We plot
$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x2202}_{r}u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D711}}^{\ast }$
in figures 5(c) and 5(d) for the same cases as in figures 5(a) and 5(b). We see that the former achieves a peak and the latter changes sign at
$r^{\ast }=1.41$
and
$r^{\ast }=2.12$
, resulting in
$F_{r}$
changing sign at those radial distances. This in turn changes the direction of
$\langle u^{(2)}\rangle _{t}$
along the wall at these locations signalling the radial extent of the vortex
$l_{vortex}$
. In fact, one finds from (2.36)

Note that this expression is independent of all other parameters and primarily results from the functional dependence in (2.36) arising due to the reflection from the wall. It matches with the values found above:
$l_{vortex}=1.41R_{0}$
and
$2.12R_{0}$
for
$h=2R_{0}$
and
$h=3R_{0}$
respectively. In contrast to the vortex length, its vertical extent
$d_{vortex}$
remains unchanged with varying
$h$
, the microbubble separation from the wall (
$0.32R_{0}$
for both
$h^{\ast }=h/R_{0}=2$
and
$h^{\ast }=3$
). It is of the order
${\sim}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$
, the boundary layer thickness. One can compute it by considering the vertical component of streaming velocity close to the axis of symmetry being zero
$\langle w^{(2)}\rangle _{t}(r^{\ast }\rightarrow 0,d_{vortex}/R_{0})=0$
. Near the axis of symmetry where
$r=0$
, one can approximate

Therefore, close to the axis, one can write (2.23) as

One then obtains

Here, it results in
$d_{vortex}=0.32R_{0}$
as seen in figure 5(a,b). The width therefore is typical of boundary layer scaling and depends only on the excitation frequency and kinematic viscosity of the fluid.

Figure 5. Microstreaming streamlines near the plane rigid wall when
$Re_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11,We_{b}=20$
,
$P_{ex}^{\ast }=0.7$
and the microbubble is located at (a)
$h/R_{0}=2$
and (b)
$h/R_{0}=3$
. (c,d) Corresponding non-dimensional amplitude of radial potential velocity (black solid line) on the rigid wall and its derivative (red dashed line) with respect to radial distance along the wall. (e,f) Corresponding non-dimensional shear stress on the wall using limiting streaming velocity and microstreaming velocity.
Figures 5(e) and 5(f) show the shear stress on the wall induced by the microstreaming flow shown in figures 5(a) and 5(b), respectively. It changes sign at
$r=l_{vortex}$
where the radial first-order irrotational velocity achieves its maximum. The maximum shear stress on the wall, as expected, decreases when the microbubble is excited further away from the wall. The value of the maximum shear stress appears at a distance
$r_{max\,stress}^{\ast }$
. One can take the expression (2.38) and find its maximum at
$r_{max\,stress}^{\ast }=0.2865h^{\ast }$
as was also found by Doinikov & Bouakaz (Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz2010a
,Reference Doinikov and Bouakaz
b
). For the conditions investigated here (
$R_{0}=1.6~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$
,
$f_{ex}=3~\text{MHz}$
,
$P_{ex}=70~\text{kPa}$
), the maximum shear stress is computed to be 12.8 and 2.2 Pa (note that
$P_{0}=10^{5}~\text{Pa}$
) from figure 5(e,f). We noted before that an average streaming shear stress expression
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{L}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}u_{L}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$
has been widely used in the literature to estimate the maximum shear stress on the wall induced by microstreaming. In figure 5(e,f) the non-dimensional average streaming shear stress
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{L}^{\ast }$
(non-dimensionalized with respect to the ambient pressure) on the wall has been calculated using the limiting streaming velocity
$u_{L}$
(
$z\rightarrow \infty$
in (2.38))

Note also that the direction of the radial limiting velocity is opposite to that of the radial microstreaming velocity close to the wall as can also be observed from the microstreaming streamlines in the regions close to and far from the wall. Therefore, opposite sign has been chosen for computing
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{L}^{\ast }$
and compared to the wall stress. In any event,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{L}^{\ast }$
which is often used in the literature is computed to be much higher (almost three times in figure 5
e,f) than the wall shear stress.
Observing the motion of the tracer particles to delineate microstreaming, one obtains the Lagrangian streamlines. Figure 6 compares Lagrangian with Eulerian streamline patterns demonstrating that for the same flow field they are significantly different. Specifically, the vertical width of the vortical structure is narrower in the Lagrangian field causing the Lagrangian velocity to be of opposite sign at the same position. In figure 7, we plot the radial and vertical velocity components in both Eulerian and Lagrangian descriptions at three different vertical locations
$z=0.03R_{0}$
,
$z=0.16R_{0}$
and
$z=0.32R_{0}$
from the wall. We find that the velocities in the two different descriptions are similar and in the same direction closest to the wall, but at
$z=0.125R_{0}$
, while Eulerian radial velocity is positive, i.e. outward close to the axis in the bottom region of the vortex, its Lagrangian counterpart is mostly negative in the top part of the Lagrangian vortex (figure 7
a). The vertical velocity in figure 7(b) shows similar differences in the two descriptions. Note that the highest magnitude of the radial Eulerian velocity at
$z=0.32R_{0}$
(top of the vortex) is
${\sim}3~\text{mm}~\text{s}^{-1}$
.

Figure 6. Comparing microstreaming streamlines near the plane rigid wall due to a free microbubble using Lagrangian and Eulerian streaming when
$Re_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11,We_{b}=20$
,
$h/R_{0}=2$
,
$P_{ex}^{\ast }=0.7$
.

Figure 7. Comparing (a) radial component and (b) vertical component of Lagrangian and Eulerian microstreaming velocity at three different vertical distances
$z=0.03R_{0}$
,
$z=0.16R_{0}$
and
$z=0.32R_{0}$
from the wall when
$Re_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11,We_{b}=20$
,
$h/R_{0}=2$
,
$P_{ex}^{\ast }=0.7$
.
We have examined the effects of bubble translational motion on the theoretical expression of microstreaming in § 2.6 noting that the effects are small. In figure 8, we validate this conclusion by noting that accounting for translation leads to very little change in the streamline pattern.

Figure 8. Streamlines due to microstreaming near the plane rigid wall due to a free microbubble with and without accounting for translational motion when
$Re_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11$
,
$We_{b}=20,h/R_{0}=2$
,
$P_{ex}^{\ast }=0.7$
.

Figure 9. Vorticity contours due to the ring vortex induced by free microbubble when
$Re_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11,We_{b}=20$
at
$h/R_{0}=2$
,
$P_{ex}^{\ast }=0.7$
.
Figure 9 plots the vorticity. The region of high negative vorticity (on the right-hand side of the figure; the left-hand side is antisymmetric) in the area adjoining the wall is generated by the strong shear due to the no-slip condition, coinciding with the flatter streamlines in the lower part of the vortex (figure 8). The vorticity increases with vertical distance from the wall changing sign to become positive and achieving the highest positive value near the edge of the vortex flow due to the strong shear layer there. The vorticity field, although generated by the vortex flow, does not provide an easy identification of the vortex, embodying the problem of vortex identification described in § 2.8. We identify the vortex region using the d2 method – inside the region enclosed by the
$d_{2}=0$
curve in figure 9, where
$d_{2}$
according to (2.44) is negative – and compute circulation of the vortex. We note that the region identified by the d2 method is smaller than what can be estimated from the streamline plot in figure 8. The closely spaced straight streamlines near the boundaries of the vortex in figure 8 were identified by the method as due to the boundary shear rather than due to the vortex. As described before, such difficulties of vortex identification methods have been discussed before in the literature (Chakraborty et al.
Reference Chakraborty, Balachandar and Adrian2005). However, the vortex identified allows us to compute the circulation. Figure 10(a) shows the non-dimensional circulation
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}^{\ast }$
of the axisymmetric vortex ring (non-dimensionalized by
$R_{0}^{2}\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}$
) as a function of separation distance
$h$
of the microbubble from the wall. We also plot the maximum shear stress
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{max}^{\ast }$
in the same figure. They both decrease with increasing separation of the microbubble from the wall with a power-law variation with
$h/R_{0}$
.
We investigate these variations in detail. In order to accommodate widely different magnitudes of these quantities in the same figure, we plot in figure 10(b) these quantities – circulation, maximum shear stress – by normalizing them by their highest values occurring at
$h/R_{0}=1$
, i.e.
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}^{\ast }(h/R_{0}=1)$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{max}^{\ast }(h/R_{0}=1)$
. We also plot maximum vorticity
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{max}$
normalizing it by
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{max}(h/R_{0}=1)$
. We note similar scaling in shear stress and vorticity
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{max}^{\ast },\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{max}\sim (h/R_{0})^{-4.3}$
. This can be explained by noting that the term
$\unicode[STIX]{x2202}\langle u_{2}\rangle /\unicode[STIX]{x2202}y$
responsible for
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$
is the dominant part in
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}$
. We find
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}^{\ast }\sim (h/R_{0})^{-3.4}$
. Approximate relation
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}^{\ast }\sim \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{max}(h/R_{0})$
can be explained by noting the Stokes theorem
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}=\int \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}\,\text{d}r\,\text{d}z\sim \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{max}l_{vortex}d_{vortex}$
and the relations found before (3.1) and (3.4). These relations are also seen for other microbubble radii
$R_{0}=3~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$
and
$R_{0}=5~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$
(correspondingly different
$Re_{b}$
,
$Eu_{b}$
and
$We_{b}$
) in figures 10(c) and 10(d). The exact power-law indices differ but
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{max}^{\ast }$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{max}$
have the same index and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}^{\ast }\sim \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{max}(h/R_{0})$
approximately holds in all cases.

Figure 10. (a) Non-dimensional circulation of the ring vortex and non-dimensional maximum shear stress as a function of the separation distance of the microbubble from the wall when
$Re_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11,We_{b}=20$
,
$P_{ex}^{\ast }=0.7$
. (b) Circulation, maximum vorticity and maximum wall shear stress normalized by their values at
$h/R_{0}=1$
as a function of
$h/R_{0}$
for the same condition as in (a). (c) The same quantities as plotted in (b) for
$Re_{b}=170,Eu_{b}=0.03,We_{b}=133$
. (d) The same quantities as plotted in (b) for
$Re_{b}=471$
,
$We_{b}=617$
,
$Eu_{b}=0.011$
.
3.2 Effects of microbubble coating on microstreaming
Here we consider the effects of the stabilizing coating on a microbubble. As noted before, we consider the contrast agent Sonazoid and use its property values determined using the exponential elasticity model (Paul et al.
Reference Paul, Katiyar, Sarkar, Chatterjee, Shi and Forsberg2010):
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{0}=0.019~\text{N}~\text{m}^{-1}$
,
$E_{0}^{s}=0.55~\text{N}~\text{m}^{-1}$
,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}^{s}=1.5$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}^{s}=1.2\times 10^{-8}~\text{N}~\text{s}~\text{m}^{-1}$
. Note that we found qualitatively similar results with other models (not shown here) such as that of Marmottant et al. (Reference Marmottant, van der Meer, Emmer, Versluis, de Jong, Hilgenfeldt and Lohse2005). We choose bubble radius of
$1.6~\unicode[STIX]{x03BC}\text{m}$
, average size of Sonazoid
$h=2R_{0}$
and identical excitation parameters (70 kPa, 3 MHz) as before giving rise to
$Re_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11$
,
$We_{b}=20$
,
$Re_{b}^{s}=6.4,We_{b}^{s}=2.6$
. Two material non-dimensional parameters are
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{0}/E_{0}^{s}=0.0345$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}^{s}=1.5$
. Resulting non-dimensional periodic oscillation amplitude is
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}=0.08$
, smaller than the free bubble. The bubble streaming Reynolds number
$Re_{bs}=0.06$
is also correspondingly smaller. Figure 11(a) shows the microstreaming streamlines due to a pulsating Sonazoid microbubble for this condition. The streamline pattern is similar to that due to a free microbubble without any coating shown in figure 4(a). The dimensions of the vortex
$l_{vortex}=1.41R_{0}$
and
$d_{vortex}=0.32R_{0}$
are the same as those in free vortex (as determined, for example, by equation (3.1)). In figure 11(b), we show the wall shear stress for the same condition. Shear stress profiles are similar to those for a free bubble, reaching zero value at
$r^{\ast }=l_{vortex}/R_{0}$
. The value of the maximum shear stress for this coated bubble is 6 Pa, smaller than the case of a free bubble for the same conditions (size, excitation parameters and separation) with identical position and the shear stress expectedly decreases and with increasing bubble separation; at the same time,
$l_{vortex}$
increases as per equation (3.1).

Figure 11. (a) Streaming velocity field near the plane rigid wall due to coated microbubble when
$Re_{b}=48$
,
$Eu_{b}=0.11$
,
$We_{b}=20$
,
$Re_{b}^{s}=6.4$
,
$We_{b}^{s}=2.6$
,
$h/R_{0}=2$
,
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{0}/E_{0}^{s}=0.0345$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}^{s}=1.5$
. (b) Wall shear stress for the same conditions as well as for two other values of
$h/R_{0}$
.

Figure 12. Non-dimensional circulation of half the ring vortex and maximum wall shear stress due to coated microbubble (a) with respect to dilatation viscosity and (b) with respect to coating elasticity when
$Re_{b}=48,Eu_{b}=0.11,We_{b}=20$
,
$h/R_{0}=2$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}^{s}=1.5$
.
To examine the effects of the shell parameters, in figures 12(a) and 12(b) we plot the non-dimensional circulation of the vortex
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}^{\ast }$
and non-dimensional maximum shear stress on the wall with respect to shell viscosity ratio
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}^{s}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}_{(sonazoid)}^{s}$
and shell elasticity ratio
$E_{0}^{s}/E_{0(sonazoid)}^{s}$
, respectively, with other parameters held the same as before. The values for Sonazoid coating agent are
$E_{0(sonazoid)}^{s}=0.55~\text{N}~\text{m}^{-1}$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}_{sonazoid}^{s}=1.2\times 10^{-8}~\text{N}~\text{s}~\text{m}^{-1}$
. Here
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}^{\ast }$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{max}^{\ast }$
show identical variations with coating parameters. Coating parameters affect the bubble pulsation amplitude and that in turn affects
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}^{\ast }$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{max}^{\ast }$
. The variations in
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6EC}^{\ast }$
and
$\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}_{max}^{\ast }$
are then identical for the same reasons as for the free bubble. Figure 12(a) shows that circulation and maximum shear stress decrease with increasing dilatational viscosity, as can be expected from the fact that at higher dilatational viscosities, the coated microbubble has smaller pulsation amplitudes and thereby lower streaming velocity and lower shear stress as well as circulation. The change of circulation and shear stress with shell elasticity (figure 12
b) shows a maximum corresponding to
$E_{0}^{s}=0.27~\text{N}~\text{m}^{-1}$
. The maximum signals a resonance of the coated microbubble at the excitation frequency; changing the shell elasticity changes the spring constant and correspondingly the resonance frequency of the coated bubble according to equation (2.43), i.e. the oscillation is maximum at this value of
$E_{0}^{s}$
.
4 Conclusion
Acoustic microstreaming due to an oscillating bubble near a plane wall has been analytically investigated in detail using a perturbative theory. Both free and coated microbubbles have been considered. The Eulerian and Lagrangian velocity fields and wall shear stresses have been computed. The closed streamlines of the axisymmetric ring vortex have been plotted. The vortex geometry has been identified using a d2 method and its circulation computed. Under the approximations used, the vortex radial length along the wall is found to depend only on the separation of the bubble from the wall with the dependence being linear. The maximum shear stress has been shown to have the same variation with bubble separation as the circulation. For coated microbubbles, a strain-softening viscoelastic interfacial model for the coating is used. The analytical results for the coated bubble are similar to those for the free bubble. The wall shear stress decreases with increasing shell dilatational viscosity and shows a non-monotonic behaviour with increasing shell dilatational elasticity with a peak at the resonance.
Acknowledgements
K.S. acknowledges partial support from NSF CBET 1602884, and George Washington University. The authors acknowledge important suggestions from and fruitful discussions with Drs K. Bulusu and M. R. Najjari regarding the d2 methods and with Professor Rallabandi regarding experiments of acoustic streaming.