Bistability in bubble formation

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2004 Dec;70(6 Pt 2):066215. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.70.066215. Epub 2004 Dec 23.

Abstract

We obtain experimental data on time intervals of a bubble train generated from a nozzle with the air flow rate as the control parameter. Varying the length of the hose that connects the proportionating solenoid valve to the nozzle, we generate bifurcation diagrams showing period-adding cascades, among other dynamical phenomena. Then we construct a two-parameter family of one-dimensional maps whose bifurcation diagrams qualitatively match the experimental ones. The model indicates the existence of parameters where two attractors coexist, a phenomenon called bistability, and the same behavior is fully confirmed in the experiment.