Dissipative Effects of Bubbles and Particles in Shear Flows

Abstract

Chemical reactors, air lubrication systems, and the aeration of the oceans rely, either in part or in whole, on the interaction of bubbles and their surrounding liquid. Even though bubbly mixtures have been studied at both the macroscopic and bubble level, the dissipation field associated with an individual bubble in a shear flow has not been thoroughly investigated. Exploring the nature of this phenomenon is critical not only when examining the effect a bubble has on the dissipation in a bulk shear flow but also when a microbubble interacts with turbulent eddies near the Kolmogorov length scale. In order to further our understanding of this behavior, this study investigated these interactions both analytically and experimentally. From an analytical perspective, expressions were developed to model the dissipation associated with the creeping flow fields in and around a fluid particle immersed in a linear shear flow. Experimentally, tests were conducted using a simple test setup that corroborated the general findings of the theoretical investigation. Both the analytical and experimental results indicate that the presence of bubbles in a shear flow causes elevated dissipation of kinetic energy.