A temporal, inviscid, linear stability analysis of a liquid jet and the co-flowing gas stream surrounding the jet has been performed. The basic liquid and gas velocity profiles have been computed self-consistently by solving numerically the appropriate set of coupled Navier–Stokes equations reduced using the slenderness approximation. The analysis in the case of a uniform liquid velocity profile recovers the classical Rayleigh and Weber non-viscous results as limiting cases for well-developed and very thin gas boundary layers respectively, but the consideration of realistic liquid velocity profiles brings to light new families of modes which are essential to explain atomization experiments at large enough Weber numbers, and which do not appear in the classical stability analyses of non-viscous parallel streams. In fact, in atomization experiments with Weber numbers around 20, we observe a change in the breakup pattern from axisymmetric to helicoidal modes which are predicted and explained by our theory as having an hydrodynamic origin related to the structure of the liquid-jet basic velocity profile. This work has been motivated by the recent discovery by Gañán-Calvo (1998) of a new atomization technique based on the acceleration to large velocities of coaxial liquid and gas jets by means of a favourable pressure gradient and which are of emerging interest in microfluidic applications (high-quality atomization, micro-fibre production, biomedical applications, etc.).

We have analysed the structure of the irrotational flow near the minimum radius of an axisymmetric bubble at the final instants before pinch-off. The neglect of gas inertia leads to the geometry of the liquid–gas interface near the point of minimum radius being slender and symmetric with respect to the plane $z\,{=}\,0$. The results reproduce our previous finding that the asymptotic time evolution for the minimum radius, $R_o(t)$, is $\tau\propto R^2_o\sqrt{-\,{\rm ln}\,R^2_o}$, $\tau$ being the time to breakup, and that the interface is locally described, for times sufficiently close to pinch-off, by $f(z,t)/R_o(t)\,{=}\,1\,{-}\,(6\,{\rm ln}\,R_o)^{-1}(z/R_o)^2$. These asymptotic solutions correspond to the attractor of a system of ordinary differential equations governing the flow during the final stages before pinch-off. However, we find that, depending on initial conditions, the solution converges to the attractor so slowly (with a logarithmic behaviour) that the universal laws given above may hold only for times so close to the singularity that they might not be experimentally observed.

The acoustic attenuation spectrum of lipid-coated microbubble suspensions was measured in order to characterize the linear acoustic behavior of ultrasound contrast agents. For that purpose, microbubbles samples were generated with a very narrow size distribution by using microfluidics techniques. A performance as good as optical characterization techniques of single microbubbles was achieved using this method. Compared to polydispersions (i.e., contrast agents used clinically), monodisperse contrast agents have a narrower attenuation spectrum, which presents a maximum peak at a frequency value corresponding to the average single bubble resonance frequency. The low polydispersity index of the samples made the estimation of the lipid viscoelastic properties more accurate since, as previously reported, the shell linear parameters may change with the equilibrium bubble radius. The results showed the great advantage of dealing with monodisperse populations rather than polydisperse populations for the acoustic characterization of ultrasound contrast agents.

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We present both numerical and analytical results from a spatial stability analysis of the coupled gas-liquid hydrodynamic equations governing the first wind-induced (FWI) liquid-jet break-up regime. Our study shows that an accurate evaluation of the growth rate of instabilities developing in a liquid jet discharging into a still gaseous atmosphere requires gas viscosity to be included in the stability equations even for low We g , where We g = ρ g U 2 l R 0 /σ , and ρ g , U l , R 0 and σ are the gas density, the liquid injection velocity, the jet radius and the surface tension coefficient, respectively. The numerical results of the complete set of equations, in which the effect of viscosity in the gas perturbations is treated self-consistently for the first time, are in accordance with recently reported experimental growth rates. This permits us to conclude that the simple stability analysis presented here can be used to predict experimental results. Moreover, in order to throw light on the physical role played by the gas viscosity in the liquid-jet break-up process, we have considered the limiting case of very high Reynolds numbers and performed an asymptotic analysis which provides us with a parameter, α, that measures the relative importance of viscous effects in the gas perturbations. The criterion |α| 1, with α computed a priori using only the much simpler inviscid stability results is a guide to assess the accuracy of a stability analysis in which viscous diffusion is neglected. We have also been able to explain the origin of the ad hoc constant 0.175 introduced by Sterling & Sleicher (J.