Coalescence of bubbles in a viscoelastic liquid

The coalescence of bubbles dissolved in liquids occurs in systems like foams, magma, and various other bubbly flows. Here, we investigate the coalescence of two bubbles of identical size in semidilute aqueous polymer solutions. The rheological properties are very different from those of water; yet, the early-time dynamics of coalescence are not altered by the presence of polymers. Even though the polymers get highly stretched in the azimuthal direction, we find that the resulting hoop force is insufficient to modify the rate of coalescence or the shape of the growing neck.