Masato Fukuta

Numerical study on the shear-induced lift force acting on a spherical bubble in aqueous surfactant solutions

A single bubble motion in aqueous surfactant solutions is discussed in this paper. We focus on the change of the lift force acting on a bubble in a linear shear flow under the condition that the bubble surface is contaminated by surfactant adsorption which leads the Marangoni effect. With an increase of Langmuir number which corresponds to a decrease of desorption rate constant of surfactant, the lift force acting on a spherical bubble decreases from the value of a clean bubble to near zero. This reduction is significantly related to a nonaxisymmetric distribution of pressure on the surface. Comparing the present results with those of our previous simulations using an axisymmetric stagnant cap model, the lift coefficients in the present simulations show larger values than those of the stagnant cap model. This is due to a nonaxisymmetric distribution of surface concentration. This asymmetry of the distribution enhances the asymmetry of the surface pressure distribution, which ends up the larger shear-induc...

Surfactant effect on the bubble motions and bubbly flow structures in a vertical channel

It is well known that a small amount of surfactant can drastically change the motion of a single bubble and this causes a dramatic change of the whole bubbly flow structure. In our previous studies using upward vertical channel flows, it was shown that surfactant influences the shear-induced lift and the lateral migration of a bubble, which causes bubble accumulation and clustering near the wall. In this paper, the dependence of surfactant concentration on the motions of a 1 mm bubble rising through the laminar shear flow is investigated using 1-, 3-Pentanol and Triton X-100. The results are compared with the numerical ones, which show quantitative agreement on the lift and drag forces. Furthermore, we analyze the experimental data for the condition of bubble clustering in upward channel flows with the consideration of contaminant level in tap water. The results indicate that lower contaminant level and higher shear rate cause the significant bubble migration toward the wall, which leads to the formation of bubble clusters.

Development of Boiling Heat Transfer Analysis Method

In this study, a numerical analysis method applicable to estimation of the boiling heat transfer has been developed. Currently, the experimental correlations or the empirical laws have been applied to evaluate the boiling heat transfer. Therefore, it is difficult to predict the effects of the change of the heated surface geometry, thermal-hydraulic conditions, the surface activation or modification, because out of the application range of these correlations. The purpose of this work is to construct the boiling two-phase analysis method for thermo-fluid phenomena, and to realize “Design-by-Analysis” independent on the experiments and empirical laws. For this purpose, it is important to predict steam-water interface structure characteristics of the two-phase flow directly. Until now, for evaluating the boiling phenomena, Diffusive Interface Model for the bubble interface tracking was applied. In this model, the steam-water interface is diffuse with a finite width, and values of the thermodynamic properties change between water and steam smoothly within the interface region. For evaluating the wettability of heated surface, the surface energy is estimated by using the phase-field model. The wetting phenomena during boiling are able to be analyzed directly with this model. We present the numerical results of nucleate pool boiling phenomenon by using the developed analysis method. We succeeded in simulating the boiling process, vapor bubbles nucleation, growth, and departure behavior on a heated surface. By present analysis method, it was confirmed that the boiling heat transfer coefficient could be evaluated quantitatively without the experimental correlations.Copyright

Shear-Induced Lift Force on a Single Bubble in Surfactant Solutions

In this paper, single bubble motion in surfactant solutions is discussed. We focus on the change of the shear-induced lift force acting on a bubble when the bubble surface is contaminated by surfactant adsorption which leads the Marangoni effect. With the increase of Langmuir number corresponding to the decrease of desorption rate constant of surfactant, the lift force on a spherical bubble decreases from that on a clean bubble to near zero value. This reduction is related significantly to the asymmetry of pressure distribution on surface. Comparing the present result with our previous simulation using the stagnant cap model, the lift force of this study is larger than that of the stagnant cap model. This is because in a shear flow, the surface concentration distributes asymmetrically, and the asymmetry of the surface pressure produced by the shear appears stronger than that of the stagnant cap model.Copyright