Bubbles in complex fluids are often desirable, and sometimes simply inevitable, in the processing of formulated products. Bubbles can rise by buoyancy, grow or dissolve by mass transfer, and readily respond to changes in pressure, thereby applying a deformation to the surrounding complex fluid. The deformation field around a stationary, spherical bubble undergoing a change in radius is simple and localised, thus making it suitable for rheological measurements. This article reviews emerging approaches to extract information on the rheology of complex fluids by analysing bubble dynamics. The focus is on three phenomena: changes in radius by mass transfer, harmonic oscillations driven by an acoustic wave, and bubble collapse. These phenomena cover a broad range of deformation frequencies, from 10⁻⁴ to 10⁶ Hz, thus paving the way to broadband microrheology using bubbles as active probes. The outstanding challenges that need to be overcome to achieve a robust technique are also discussed.

在配制产品的加工中，复杂流体中的气泡通常是理想的，有时甚至是不可避免的。气泡可以通过浮力上升，通过传质而生长或溶解，并易于响应压力变化，从而使周围的复杂流体变形。半径发生变化的固定球形气泡周围的形变场很简单且局部化，因此适合流变测量。本文介绍了通过分析气泡动力学来提取有关复杂流体流变学信息的新兴方法。重点关注三种现象：传质引起的半径变化，声波驱动的谐波振荡以及气泡破裂。这些现象覆盖的变形频率范围很广，从10 ^-4到10⁶ Hz，从而为使用气泡作为活性探针的宽带微流变学铺平了道路。还讨论了实现强大技术所需克服的突出挑战。