An indirect boundary-element method for slow viscous flow in a bounded region containing air bubbles

This paper presents a novel formulation of the completed indirect boundary- element method to study the shrinkage of air bubbles on a slow viscous flow in a bounded region subject to surface tension. The formulation has applic ation to viscous sintering, a process for manufacturing high-quality glass by means of sol-gel processing. The theoretical background is explained in detail, including mathematical proofs of existence and uniqueness of soluti ons. Numerical results are included and compared to analytical and previous numerical solutions.