Julian Martinez Mercado

On bubble clustering and energy spectra in pseudo-turbulence

Three-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) and phase-sensitive constant temperature anemometry in pseudo-turbulence – i.e. flow solely driven by rising bubbles – were performed to investigate bubble clustering and to obtain the mean bubble rise velocity, distributions of bubble velocities and energy spectra at dilute gas concentrations (α ≤ 2.2 %). To characterize the clustering the pair correlation function G(r, θ) was calculated. The deformable bubbles with equivalent bubble diameter db = 4–5 mm were found to cluster within a radial distance of a few bubble radii with a preferred vertical orientation. This vertical alignment was present at both small and large scales. For small distances also some horizontal clustering was found. The large number of data points and the non-intrusiveness of PTV allowed well-converged probability density functions (PDFs) of the bubble velocity to be obtained. The PDFs had a non-Gaussian form for all velocity components and intermittency effects could be observed. The energy spectrum of the liquid velocity fluctuations decayed with a power law of −3.2, different from the ≈ −5/3 found for homogeneous isotropic turbulence, but close to the prediction −3 by Lance & Bataille (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 222, 1991, p. 95) for pseudo-turbulenceThree-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) and phase-sensitive constant temperature anemometry in pseudo-turbulence – i.e. flow solely driven by rising bubbles – were performed to investigate bubble clustering and to obtain the mean bubble rise velocity, distributions of bubble velocities and energy spectra at dilute gas concentrations (α ≤ 2.2 %). To characterize the clustering the pair correlation function G(r, θ) was calculated. The deformable bubbles with equivalent bubble diameter db = 4–5 mm were found to cluster within a radial distance of a few bubble radii with a preferred vertical orientation. This vertical alignment was present at both small and large scales. For small distances also some horizontal clustering was found. The large number of data points and the non-intrusiveness of PTV allowed well-converged probability density functions (PDFs) of the bubble velocity to be obtained. The PDFs had a non-Gaussian form for all velocity components and intermittency effects could be observed. The energy spectrum of the liquid velocity fluctuations decayed with a power law of −3.2, different from the ≈ −5/3 found for homogeneous isotropic turbulence, but close to the prediction −3 by Lance & Bataille (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 222, 1991, p. 95) for pseudo-turbulence

Lagrangian statistics of light particles in turbulence

We study the Lagrangian velocity and acceleration statistics of light particles (micro-bubbles in water) in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. Micro-bubbles with a diameter db = 340 ?m and Stokes number from 0.02 to 0.09 are dispersed in a turbulent water tunnel operated at Taylor-Reynolds numbers (Re?) ranging from 160 to 265. We reconstruct the bubble trajectories by employing three-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry. It is found that the probability density functions (PDFs) of the micro-bubble acceleration show a highly non-Gaussian behavior with flatness values in the range 23 to 30. The acceleration flatness values show an increasing trend with Re?, consistent with previous experiments [G. Voth, A. La Porta, A. M. Crawford, J. Alexander, and E. Bodenschatz, ?Measurement of particle accelerations in fully developed turbulence,? J. Fluid Mech. 469, 121 (2002)]10.1017/S0022112002001842 and numerics [T. Ishihara, Y. Kaneda, M. Yokokawa, K. Itakura, and A. Uno, ?Small-scale statistics in highresolution direct numerical simulation of turbulence: Reynolds number dependence of one-point velocity gradient statistics,? J. Fluid Mech. 592, 335 (2007)]10.1017/S0022112007008531 . These acceleration PDFs show a higher intermittency compared to tracers [S. Ayyalasomayajula, Z. Warhaft, and L. R. Collins, ?Modeling inertial particle acceleration statistics in isotropic turbulence,? Phys. Fluids. 20, 095104 (2008)]10.1063/1.2976174 and heavy particles [S. Ayyalasomayajula, A. Gylfason, L. R. Collins, E. Bodenschatz, and Z. Warhaft, ?Lagrangian measurements of inertial particle accelerations in grid generated wind tunnel turbulence,? Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 144507 (2006)]10.1103/PhysRevLett.97.144507 in wind tunnel experiments. In addition, the micro-bubble acceleration autocorrelation function decorrelates slower with increasing Re?. We also compare our results with experiments in von Karman flows and point-particle direct numerical simulations with periodic boundary conditions.

How gravity and size affect the acceleration statistics of bubbles in turbulence

We report the results of the first systematic Lagrangian experimental investigation in a previously unexplored regime of very light (air bubbles in water) and large (D/ 1) particles in turbulence. Using a traversing camera setup and particle tracking, we study the Lagrangian acceleration statistics of 3mm diameter (D) bubbles in a water tunnel with nearly homogeneous and isotropic turbulence generated by an active grid. The Reynolds number (Re ) is varied from 145 to 230, resulting in size ratios, D/ , in the range of 7.3-12.5, where is the Kolmogorov length scale. The experiments reveal that gravity increases the acceleration variance and reduces the intermittency of the probability density function (PDF) in the vertical direction. Once the gravity

Bubble Dynamics in Laser Lithotripsy

Laser lithotripsy is a medical procedure for fragmentation of urinary stones with a fiber guided laser pulse of several hundred microseconds long. Using high-speed photography, we present an in-vitro study of bubble dynamics and stone motion induced by Ho:YAG laser lithotripsy. The experiments reveal that detectable stone motion starts only after the bubble collapse, which we relate with the collapse-induced liquid flow. Additionally, we model the bubble formation and dynamics using a set of 2D Rayleigh-Plesset equations with the measured laser pulse profile as an input. The aim is to reduce stone motion through modification of the temporal laser pulse profile, which affects the collapse scenario and consequently the remnant liquid motion.