Numerical investigation of multiple-bubble behaviour and induced pressure in a megasonic field

Clarifying the mechanism of particle removal by megasonic cleaning and multiple-bubble dynamics in megasonic fields is essential for removing contaminant particles during nanodevice cleaning without pattern damage. In particular, the effect of the interaction of multiple bubbles on bubble-collapse behaviour and impulsive pressure induced by bubble collapse should also be discussed. In this study, a compressible locally homogeneous model of a gas–liquid two-phase medium is used to numerically analyse the multiple-bubble behaviour in a megasonic field. The numerical results indicate that, for bubbles with the same equilibrium radius, the natural frequency of the bubble decreases, and bubbles with smaller equilibrium radii resonate with the megasonic wave as the number of bubbles increases. Therefore, the equilibrium radius of bubbles showing maximum wall pressure decreases with an increasing number of bubbles. The increase in bubble number also results in chain collapse, inducing high wall pressure. The effect of the configuration of bubbles is discussed, and the bubble–bubble interaction in the concentric distribution makes a greater contribution to the decrease in the natural frequency of bubbles than the interaction in the straight distribution.

Estimation of bubble time period for air-gun clusters using potential isosurfaces

We evaluated a method of estimating the relative bubble time period of air-gun clusters with an arbitrary number of guns. This was done by assuming incompressible flow and representing the bubbles as isosurfaces of the potential field to account for coalescence. The kinetic energy at the equilibrium radius was then compared to the equivalent energy of the single gun to estimate the relative change. The results agreed well with two-gun cluster measurements, but the lack of data does not allow us to compare with clusters containing more guns than that. We found that more compact configurations, such as a triangle instead of three guns in a line, gave a more rapid increase in the bubble time period as the gun separation decreased. This indicated that compact configurations were attractive for enhancing the low-frequency output from an air-gun cluster.

On Possible Reduction of Equilibrium Radius of a Neutron Star Influenced by Superstrong Magnetic Field

Necessary condition forβ-decay suppression of a neutron in degenerate magnetized electron gas is formulated. Based on this, it is shown that, in superstrong magnetic field, equilibrium radius of a neutron star is approximately several times smaller than without the field influence. Therefore, we can make a prediction that in short-period pulsars, such fields can be observed. In fact, possible existence of new class of stellar objects is noted, the objects with superstrong magnetic field and supersmall radius about 1 km which we namedminimagnetars. They can be detected by gravitational red shift of their radiation.