Abstract
Bubble collisions with solid surfaces are critical in both natural and industrial contexts, ranging from gas absorption in bioreactors to marine aerosol production. Despite their ubiquity, the physical criteria underlying bounce dynamics remain unresolved. Here, through experiments and simulations, we map the phase diagram of rising bubbles impacting a wall in Galilei (Ga)–Bond (Bo) space, revealing four dynamic regimes: fully bouncing, underdamped non-bouncing, overdamped non-bouncing, and breakup. We find that bouncing is governed jointly by Ga and Bo, while underdamped dynamics depend solely on Ga. The initial rise distance modulates regime transitions only when shorter than five bubble radii, whereas longer rise distances in high Ga and Bo regions promote bubble breakup and suppress bouncing. We develop a unifying double-mass-spring-damper model, quantitatively matching the complete rebound and damped adhesion regimes, and explain bouncing suppression in microgravity and low-viscosity fluids via energy dissipation analysis. Our work provides a unified framework that clarifies the governing mechanisms of bubble-impact dynamics, offering design principles for applications in chemical engineering, biomedicine, and environmental flows.
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Data availability
All raw data39 related to the main text and supporting information are provided in the Source Data File at (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18787561), which links to the GitHub repository: (https://github.com/zhangxyPHD/When-bubbles-bounce-or-stick). Source data are provided with this paper.
Code availability
The codes39 used in this study for bubble rising and impact are publicly available at (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18787561), which links to the GitHub repository: (https://github.com/zhangxyPHD/When-bubbles-bounce-or-stick).
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Acknowledgements
The work described in this paper is supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. 9043684, CityU 11207424; Project No. 8730079, C1014-22G and Project No. 8780054, STG5/E-103/24-R, K.M.L.). We would like to acknowledge the CityU High-Performance Computing (HPC) resources in Hong Kong SAR. We are grateful for the discussions with Wai Kin Lo and Lu-Wen Zhang.
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K.M.L. supervised and funded the research. X.Y.Z. conceived the research, built the analytical models, conducted the DNS simulations, and interpreted the data. X.Y.Z. and Z.B.X. designed the experiments. Z.B.X. carried out the experiments and performed image analysis. S.W. and K.M.L. contributed to the interpretation of the results. All authors X.Y.Z., Z.B.X., S.W. and K.M.L. wrote the paper.
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Nature Communications thanks Niklas Hidman, Philippe Brunet and Romuald Mosdorf who co-reviewed with Gabriela Rafałko, for their contribution to the peer review of this work. A peer review file is available.”
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Zhang, X., Xu, Z., Wang, S. et al. When bubbles bounce or stick. Nat Commun (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70921-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-026-70921-2
