Hideki Murakawa

Microstructure of the flow field around a bubble in counter-current bubbly flow

Abstract Experimental study was made on the flow structure around a bubble in air–water bubbly flow. In order to measure velocity profiles around a bubble, an Ultrasonic Velocity Profile monitor was employed, which can obtain an instantaneous velocity profile along its measuring line across a channel. The experiments were carried out in a 100×10 mm 2 rectangular channel for the air–water counter-current bubbly flow whose void fraction smaller than 7%. The bubble Reynolds number was ranged between 700 and 1000. Most bubbles had ellipsoidal shapes and rose up with wobbling motions. Our experimental results plotted in the form of non-dimensional velocity profiles show that the velocity field around a bubble has a structure similar to the turbulent boundary layer on a solid wall. On the other hand, an earlier analytical study by Moore [J. Fluid Mech. 16 (1963) 161] used an assumption of a spherical bubble rising in liquid irrotationally, and the solution was derived that the flow around a bubble being composed of a thin boundary layer and its outer main stream in potential flow. In this paper, the relation between these two types of boundary layer structures is discussed.

Measurement of Liquid Turbulent Structure in Bubbly Flow at Low Void Fraction Using Ultrasonic Doppler Method

Microscopic structure in bubbly flows has been a topic of interest in the study of fluid dynamics. In the present paper, the ultrasonic Doppler method was applied to the measurement of bubbly. The experiments were carried out for an air-water dispersed bubbly flow in a 20 mm × 100 mm vertical rectangular channel having a void fraction smaller than 3%. Two ultrasonic transducers were installed on the outer surface of the test section with a contact angle of 45° off the vertical axis, one facing upward and the other facing downward. By applying statistical methods to the two directional velocity profiles, Reynolds stress profiles were calculated. Furthermore, to clarify the wake effect induced by the leading bubbles, the velocity profiles were divided into two types of data. The first one is for all of the liquid data and the other is the data which did not include the wake effect. For Rem ≥1,593, it was observed that the bubbles suppressed the liquid turbulence. Furthermore, comparing with the Reynolds stress profiles in bubbly flow, it was found that Reynolds stress profiles varied with the amount of bubbles present in the flow and the effect of wake causes turbulence in the liquid.

Measurement of Bubbly Flow in a Vertical Pipe Using Ultrasonic Doppler Method

In order to clarify the microscopic flow structure, the ultrasonic Doppler method was applied to the measurement of two-phase bubbly flow in vertical pipe (i.d.50mm). Liquid flow structure might strongly be influenced by the characteristic of the injected bubbles, i.e. bubbles’ size and void fraction. In this study, a bubble generator was newly designed with the purpose to control the bubble size and void fraction, independent of liquid main-flow rate. The experiment was performed at z/d = 66 from the bubble generator. Liquid flow rates were of the Reynolds numbers ranging from Rem = 3700 to 6200. The gas flow rate was constant at JG = 0.00348(m/s) at the measurement position. By analyzing the bubbles’ picture, it was confirmed that bubble size distribution and average bubble size were almost constant if the liquid flow rate were changed. The ultrasonic Doppler method has the capability of measuring the instantaneous velocity profiles of both phases at the same time. By processing the data based on pattern recognition, the recorded data can be classified to several groups. Using this method, the authors have tried to measure the bubbly flow in rectangular channel. In the present study, the application of this method to bubbly flow in circular pipe was satisfactory to obtain the liquid velocity distribution in bubbly flow and surrounding bubbles. From these results, it was clarified that velocity profile in bubbly flow in circular pipe has a maximum value near the pipe wall. Furthermore, velocity profiles around the bubble are influenced by leading bubbles.Copyright