Film Size During Bubble Collision With a Solid Surface

Abstract

The impact and bounce of a bubble with a solid surface is of significant interest to many industrial processes such as froth flotation and biomedical engineering. During the impact, a liquid film becomes trapped between the bubble and the solid surface. The pressure buildup in this film leads to the generation of a film force. The drainage rate of this film plays a crucial role in dictating the bouncing process and is known to be a function of the radial film size. However, radial film size is not an easily attained experimental measurement and requires advanced instrumentation to capture. The bouncing process has been characterized using nondimensional numbers that are representative of the bubble collision and film drainage phenomena. These are: Bond number (Bo), Archimedes number (Ar), Froude number (Fr), and the ratio of film force to buoyancy force (FF/FB). These numbers are used to define a predictive function for film radius. Experimentally validated numerical modeling has been implemented to determine the relationship between the four nondimensional numbers, and a quasi-static model is employed to relate the film force to the radial film size. Comparison of our experimental results is in agreement with the predicted film size within ±20%. From these results, the radial film size during bubble impact with a solid surface may be predicted using the easily measurable experimental parameters of bubble size, bubble impact velocity, and the liquid properties.