In this study an experimental work is conducted to investigate the shape and speed of an air bubble in a pipe filled with different viscous fluids and porous media. The experimental results are also compared with the Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation. Multiphase flows are complex due to the infinitely deformable nature of interface in gas/liquid flows. If one of the phases is gas acts as dispersed phase in the form of bubble, then the complexity will arise from the non-uniform distribution of bubbles in the pipe cross-section and axial distance. Inclusion of different viscous fluids simulating the industrial scale hydrocarbon properties brings added challenge in understating the bubble rise, coalescence and breakup dynamics. Moreover, bubble rise and change of shape of bubble in porous media will bring additional complexity in the flow dynamics. The pipe used in the experiment and CFD was 11.6 cm ID and a length of 100 cm. Three situations were tested: i) an air bubble rising in stagnant water, ii) an air bubble rising in moving water, and iii) an air bubble rising in a stagnant water but filled with porous media with porosity of 27%. Preliminary CFD results indicate that an air bubble has an average velocity of 0.2468 m/s and 0.2524 m/s in stagnant water and moving water, respectively, which is very close to experimental results.
Shapes and paths of an air bubble rising in quiescent liquids
