An accurate numerical scheme for the contraction of a bubble in a Hele--Shaw cell

Abstract

We report on an accurate numerical scheme for the evolution of an inviscid bubble in radial Hele,Shaw flow, where the nonlinear boundary effects of surface tension and kinetic undercooling are included on the bubble-fluid interface. As well as demonstrating the onset of the Saffman,Taylor instability for growing bubbles, the numerical method is used to show the effect of the boundary conditions on the separation (pinch off) of a contracting bubble into multiple bubbles, and the existence of multiple possible asymptotic bubble shapes in the extinction limit. The numerical scheme also allows for the accurate computation of bubbles which pinch off very close to the theoretical extinction time, raising the possibility of computing solutions for the evolution of bubbles with non-generic extinction behaviour. © Austral. Mathematical Soc. 2013.