1 Materials and Methodology

1.1 Carbopol Gel Preparation

The yield stress fluid we have chosen to use in these series of experiments is a 0.15% w/v Carbopol-
980 gel concentration. First dissolve the Carbopol in a beaker of deionized water for 1 hour by
magnetically stirring it and applying heat. We then add 18% w/v solution of NaOH to neutralize
the carbopol (raise its pH to 6-7). A 18% w/v solution of NaOH corresponds to a 2.3:1 ratio of
NaOH to carbopol. The fluid is then stirred (increasing the speed from low to high) for 1 hour
minutes and then left to stabilize overnight.

Figure 1: a) Vortex generated by the magnetic stirrer. This is when carbopol flakes are added to
the deionized water. b) Carbopol mixture being stirred by blades. This is when NaOH solution is
added.

We then describe the rheology of the Carbopol gel using a rotational rheometer (Anton Paar
MCR 502). A pre-shear is applied before each flow curve measurement to ensure repeatability of
the results. From Fig.2b we can see that after 10% deformation, signals the end of the linear elastic
regime.
From 2a we can etxract the values of the yield stress, the consistency index and the flow index
of carbopol. The values extracted are given in Table 1.1

1
 102

τ [Pa]
10−2 10−1 100 101 102
γ̇ [s− ]

(a)

102
G0 , G00 [Pa]

101

100

10−1 100 101 102 103

Deformation [%]

(b)

Figure 2: a) Stress vs strain rate of carbopol where the black crosses represent the experimental
values and the blue line represents the Hershel-Bulkley Model fit. This is a steady shear test. b)
G’ and G” as a function of the deformation of the fluid. The blue crosses represent G’ and the red
crosses represent G”. This is a oscillatory rheology test.

Name & Symbol Value Units

Yield Stress τ0 24 Pa
Consistency Index K 4.23 Pa·sn
Flow Index n 0.49 -

1.2 Experimental Set-Up

The experiments we conducted take place in a cuboidal box filled with Carbopol- 980 gel concen-
tration we have prepares. The walls of the box, whose dimensions are 6.5 cm x 6.4 cm x 5.4 cm,
are made of glass. We insert bubbles using a capillary syringe of 1.08mm in diameter. We apply
an acoustic excitation using a transducer and drive the transducer using a waveform generator. A
high speed camera then captures each acquisition. The fps value should be lower than the applied
frequency value to ensure that no frames are skipped and are able to be displayed properly. We
have chosen our fps as 1000 less than our applied frequency for each acquisition. To make pressure

2
measurements a hydrophone is placed within the vicinity of the bubble and the pressure amplitude
is read from an oscilloscope.

(a) Schematic of the Experimental Setup (b) Placement of Hydrophone in Fluid

Figure 3: a) A schematic of the experimental setup where the dark-blue device is the langevin
transducer. b) A photo of the placement of the hydrophone used to record pressure amplitude
measurements.

1.3 Data Processing

We begin by extracting frames from each video acquisition and then apply a binary threshold on
each frame. The area of the bubbles is then calculated by counting the number of black pixels and
their respective radii are calculated by considering the bubbles are spherical. The pixel size varies
according to the magnification of the zoom but this is taken into account before each acquisition
by calibrating the number of pixels to the diameter of the capillary syringe each time.