74th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 21, 2021 — November 23, 2021)

V0043: When Bubbles Don't Die

Authors

• Saurabh Nath, Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, UMR 7636 du CNRS, PSL Research University, ESPCI, 75005 Paris, France
• Guillaume Ricard, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
• Ambre Bouillant, Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, UMR 7636 du CNRS ESPCI, PSL Research University, Paris, France; LadHyX, UMR 7646 du CNRS, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France
• Christophe Clanet, LadHyX, UMR 7646 du CNRS, Ecole Polytechnique, 91128 Palaiseau, France
• David Quéré, Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes, UMR 7636 du CNRS ESPCI, PSL Research University, Paris, France; LadHyX, UMR 7646 du CNRS, École Polytechnique, Palaiseau, France

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2021.GFM.V0043

Bubbles of pure liquids are ephemeral - they typically survive a few miliseconds before gravity drains them. However,  when a puddle of water is placed on a plate hot enough that it can levitate on its own vapor (a state also called the Leidenfrost state), bubbles on top of the puddle are found to live a thousand times longer than their typical lifetimes. Through experiments, we find that all we need to break the ephemerality of bubbles of pure liquids is a little bit of heat, which for some bubbles is a gift approaching an infinite lifetime.