Modeling and Experimental Investigation of Bubble Formation in Shear-Thinning Liquids

Abstract

This investigation presents both theoretical and experimental studies on the size of a growing bubble in power-law non-Newtonian liquids. At first, some previous works on the prediction of bubble size in Newtonian liquids have been extended by considering the balance of forces acting on the bubble at the moment of separation. Predicted bubble sizes were validated against the experimental results for a wide range of operating conditions, including different gas flow rates and needle diameters as well as a wide range of physical properties of the Newtonian liquids. Furthermore, in order to determine the size of the bubbles formed in power-law non-Newtonian liquids with a similar analysis, the effective shear rate of bubble growth was calculated in which the rheological properties of fluid were taken into account and subsequently the viscosity of the fluid was modified. Theoretically obtained bubble sizes for non-Newtonian liquids are in a good agreement with our experimental high-speed video observations of three carboxyl methyl cellulose (CMC) solutions.