Occurrence of Bubbles in a Thin Wire at Low Reynolds Number

Abstract

Thin wires of various diameters from 0.07 to 0.7 mm are examined about appearances and characteristics of bubble occurrence behind them in the range of low Reynolds numbers. The appearance of bubbles is very dependent on diameters of wires. Two different types of bubbles can be observed in the present experiment. One is a streamer-type bubble for smaller wires and the other is a small unspherical bubble for larger wires. The incipient and the desinent values of cavitation number also change greatly with the bubble types. The streamer-type bubble is related to the presence of laminar separation zone and the growth due to air diffusion. The small unspherical bubble can be mainly attributed to the motion of rolled-up vortices and the growth due to vaporization.