No abstract

The random motion of nearly spherical bubbles in the turbulent flow behind a grid is studied experimentally. In quiescent water these bubbles rise at high Reynolds number. The turbulence is generated by an active grid of the design of Makita (1991), and can have turbulence Reynolds number Rλ of up to 200. Minor changes in the geometry of the grid and in its mode of operation improves the isotropy of the turbulence, compared with that reported by Makita (1991) and Mydlarski & Warhaft (1996). The trajectory of each bubble is measured with high spatial and temporal resolution with a specially developed technique that makes use of a position-sensitive detector. Bubble statistics such as the mean rise velocity and the root-mean-square velocity fluctuations are obtained by ensemble averaging over many identical bubbles. The resulting bubble mean rise velocity is significantly reduced (up to 35%) compared with the quiescent conditions. The vertical bubble velocity fluctuations are found to be non-Gaussian, whereas the horizontal displacements are Gaussian for all times. The diffusivity of bubbles is considerably less than that of fluid particles. These findings are qualitatively consistent with results obtained through theoretical analysis and numerical simulations by Spelt & Biesheuvel (1997).

This paper is concerned with the motion of small gas bubbles, equivalent diameter about 1.0 mm, in isotropic turbulent flows. Data on the mean velocity of rise and the dispersion of the bubbles have been obtained numerically by simulating the turbulence as a sum of Fourier modes with random phases and amplitudes determined by the Kraichnan and the von Kármán–Pao energy-spectrum functions, and by calculating the bubble trajectories from a reasonably well-established equation of motion. The data cover the range β[les ]1, where β is the ratio between the turbulence intensity and the velocity of rise of the bubbles in still fluid. An approximate analysis based on the assumption that β is small yields results that compare favourably with the numerical data, and clarifies the important role played by the lift forces exerted by the fluid.

Equations of motion correct to the first order of the gas concentration by volume are derived for a dispersion of gas bubbles in liquid through systematic averaging of the equations on the microlevel. First, by ensemble averaging, an expression for the average stress tensor is obtained, which is non-isotropic although the local stress tensors in the constituent phases are isotropic (viscosity is neglected). Next, by applying the same technique, the momentum-flux tensor of the entire mixture is obtained. An equation expressing the fact that the average force on a massless bubble is zero leads to a third relation. Complemented with mass-conservation equations for liquid and gas, these equations appear to constitute a completely hyperbolic system, unlike the systems with complex characteristics found previously. The characteristic speeds are calculated and shown to be related to the propagation speeds of acoustic waves and concentration waves.

The paper is concerned with the flow of dispersions of gas bubbles in liquid, with bubble sizes such that the inertia forces on the bubbles are of importance to the dynamics. One-dimensional conservation equations are derived, which govern the flow when the deviations from the uniform state are small. These are used to describe the features of the propagation of void fraction disturbances, and to investigate the stability of uniform bubbly flows. The results are compared with what has been observed in experiments.