Bubble Dynamics Observed in a Gas-Liquid Venturi Flow

Author(s):  
Wataru Nishi ◽  
Masanori Nogami ◽  
Hiroyuki Takahira

The present study deals with the experiments for the gas-liquid two-phase flow inside an acrylic Venturi tube using a high-speed video camera. Some interesting phenomena on the bubble dynamics are observed in the tube. First, the volume and surface oscillations of two interacting bubbles are observed in converging section of the tube when one bubble enters the throat. The volume oscillation of the bubble that enters the throat is caused by the detachment of the tip of the downstream surface of the bubble. The pressure wave irradiated from the bubble that enters the throat induces the volume and surface oscillations of the bubble that remains at the converging section. The parametric excitation is the reason for the surface oscillations. Second, the bubble deformations at the throat in a Venturi or a converging tube are investigated. The experiments show that two kinds of liquid jets are formed on the bubble surface; one is a forward jet that develops from the upstream surface to the downstream surface and the other is a counter jet in which the direction of the jet is opposite to the forward jet. It is shown that the counter jet occurs only when the distance between two bubbles in the throat is sufficiently short. The interactions between two bubbles cause the counter jet. It is also shown that the velocity of the forward jet becomes faster when the bubble is pinched off more upstream in the converging section. Finally, the propagations of the pressure waves are measured with pressure transducers. The impulsive pressure associated with the collapse of cavitation bubble cloud is measured when a bubble enters the throat of the tube. Also, the propagation speed of pressure waves is evaluated with the cross-correlation function. The results show that the propagation speed and damping of the pressure waves are dependent on the number density of bubbles at the downstream part in the tube.

Author(s):  
Arvind Jayaprakash ◽  
Sowmitra Singh ◽  
Georges Chahine

The dynamics of a primary relatively large bubble in a water mixture including very fine bubbles is investigated experimentally and the results are provided to several parallel on-going analytical and numerical approaches. The main/primary bubble is produced by an underwater spark discharge from two concentric electrodes placed in the bubbly medium, which is generated using electrolysis. A grid of thin perpendicular wires is used to generate bubble distributions of varying intensities. The size of the main bubble is controlled by the discharge voltage, the capacitors size, and the pressure imposed in the container. The size and concentration of the fine bubbles can be controlled by the electrolysis voltage, the length, diameter, and type of the wires, and also by the pressure imposed in the container. This enables parametric study of the factors controlling the dynamics of the primary bubble and development of relationships between the bubble characteristic quantities such as maximum bubble radius and bubble period and the characteristics of the surrounding two-phase medium: micro bubble sizes and void fraction. The dynamics of the main bubble and the mixture is observed using high speed video photography. The void fraction/density of the bubbly mixture in the fluid domain is measured as a function of time and space using image analysis of the high speed movies. The interaction between the primary bubble and the bubbly medium is analyzed using both field pressure measurements and high-speed videography. Parameters such as the primary bubble energy and the bubble mixture density (void fraction) are varied, and their effects studied. The experimental data is then compared to simple compressible equations employed for spherical bubbles including a modified Gilmore Equation. Suggestions for improvement of the modeling are then presented.


2008 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad A. Rahman ◽  
Johana Gomez ◽  
Ted Heidrick ◽  
Brian A. Fleck ◽  
Jennifer McMillan

Experimentally accurate void fraction measurements are a challenge in an air/water, two-phase flows through an industrial nozzle assembly, as a highly non-uniform void fraction exists in the feeding conduit prior to the nozzle. In this study, average void fractions were measured by isolating a section in the feeding conduit of a horizontal nozzle assembly, termed as the quick-closing-valve (QCV) technique. A high-speed video camera was utilized to capture the asynchronization closing time, tac. The average closing time and asynchronization for the pneumatically controlled valves were 200 ms and 2 ms, respectively. Based on the equation of 100umtac (1−α)/αlc, the synchronization error between the two valves was 1.12%, 1.26%, and 1.79% for the 1%, 2% and 4% ALR cases, respectively; here um is the mixture velocity, α is the void faction, and lc is the closing length. Higher synchronization error at 4% ALR occurs due to enhanced momentum in the flow regime. Experimental results indicate that the average α over the 33.4 cm feeding conduit (6.25 mm ID) was 76% (αtheoretical = 75%) for the 2% ALR, and 85% (αtheoretical = 83%) for the 3.3% ALR. In the two-phase, two-component flow the α affects the drop size and stability of the spray produced from an industrial nozzle assembly. Learning from this study will yield insights and conceptual understanding of two-phase flow phenomena in conduit, which would affect stability, pulsation tendency, and possibly atomization performance of the nozzle downstream. Two-phase flow nozzles have wide applications in the industries, e.g. petrochemical, pharmaceutical, and others.


Author(s):  
Yoshinori Yagi ◽  
Michio Murase ◽  
Keiichi Sato ◽  
Shuji Hattori

We carried out experiments to clarify the mechanism of cavitation erosion at the exit of a long orifice equipped at a pressure-reducing line in a pressurized water reactor (PWR). In order to ascertain the mechanism of cavitation erosion at the first stage and progression stage, we used a high-speed video camera. As a result, we observed cavity collapse near the exit of the orifice under oscillating flow conditions, which might be a major factor in the first stage of erosion at the exit of the orifice. To simulate the progression stage, we used an orifice with a cone-shaped flow passage at its exit, corresponding to an orifice diffuser. We observed cavity collapse near the exit, after which cavities that existed upstream in the cone shape collapsed in a manner similar to a chain reaction. The propagation speed varied with the quantity of cavities in the cone-shaped flow passage and cavities collapsed in a concentric circle pattern. Thus, the cavity collapse mechanism was concluded as follows: a pressure wave (shock wave) was generated by cavity collapse near the exit, then propagated upwards, and consequently caused cavity collapse upstream. This mechanism might promote cavitation erosion in an upward direction.


2002 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Hagen ◽  
W. Chon ◽  
R. S. Amano

The objective of this study is to investigate the flow behavior within a triple-blade lawnmower deck. The test section was constructed for velocity measurement with an open bottom and side-discharge. Velocity measurements were collected at several different tangential and axial sections inside the deck. The flow behaviors are observed using Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) and a high-speed video camera capturing 2000 frames per second. Several different visualization techniques have been attempted: particle feeding, water vapor injection, tuft method, and others. To further enhance the experimental accuracy, fresh sod was fed into the system simulating normal cutting conditions. Along with the extensive velocity analysis, strain and static pressure were also examined at various surface locations along the blade using linear strain gages, piezoresistive pressure transducers, and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) methods. Validation of the above analyses was performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) investigation. It has been observed that the deck and blade configurations share equal significance in the resultant flow profiles.


2019 ◽  
Vol 864 ◽  
pp. 1058-1087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wangxia Wu ◽  
Bing Wang ◽  
Gaoming Xiang

The high-speed impingement of hollow droplets embedded with a cavity has fundamental applications in various scenarios, such as in spray coating and biomedical engineering. The impingement dynamics is modulated by the wrapping medium, different from that of denser solid droplets. With air and vapour cavities, the impingement of two kinds of hollow cylindrical droplets is simulated in the present study to investigate the morphology and physical mechanisms regarding droplet and cavity dynamics. The compressible two-phase Eulerian model is used to couple with the phase transition procedure. The results detail the evolution of droplets and collapsing dynamics of the two kinds of cavities. Processes are captured in which the impinging water-hammer shock wave interacts with the cavity, and vertical liquid jets are induced to impact the embedded cavity. For the case of the air cavity, a transmitted shock wave is formed and propagates inside the cavity. The air cavities are compressively deformed and broken into a series of small cavities. Subsequently, a range of intermittent collapsing compression wavelets are generated due to the interface collapse driven by local jets. As for the vapour cavity in the saturated state, initially, once it is impacted by the impinging shock wave, it gradually shrinks accompanied by local condensation but without generation of transmitted waves. Following the first interaction between the lower and upper surfaces of the cavity, the vapour cavity undergoes continuous condensation and collapse with repeated interface fusion. The vapour cavity finally turns into liquid water blended into the surroundings, and the strong collapsing shock waves are expanded inside the droplet. The radius ratios and initial impinging speeds are chosen to analyse the variation of the collapsing time, maximum collapsing pressure and mean pressure on the rigid wall. The pressure withstood by the wall due to the collapsing cavity increases with the initial size of the cavity and initial impinging speed. The maximum local pressures in the entire fluids and the mean pressure on the wall during the collapsing of the vapour cavities are higher than those for the air cavities.


Author(s):  
Dan Jiang ◽  
Cong Ren ◽  
Qing Guo

In this study, pressure transients are triggered by a steel ball, which is released from an upstream reservoir to hit a valve seat and shut off water flow in a horizontal straight copper pipeline. The pressure pulsations, cavitation and gas bubbles growth and collapse in the low pressure water-hydraulic pipeline are recorded by two pressure transducers and a high speed video camera, respectively. In addition, the influences of initial volume of gas bubbles in water and instant leakage in valve are investigated. The experimental results indicate that increasing initial gas bubble volume in water and the instant leakage of the valve will help to reduce magnitudes and numbers of pressure peaks during pressure transients. Then methods to reduce pressure pulsations in pipelines are put forward.


Author(s):  
Youngsuk Nam ◽  
Gopinath Warrier ◽  
Jinfeng Wu ◽  
Y. Sungtaek Ju

The growth and departure of single bubbles on two surfaces with very different wettability is studied using high-speed video microscopy and numerical simulation. Isolated artificial cavities of approximately 10μm diameter are microfabricated on a bare and a Teflon-coated silicon substrate to serve as nucleation sites. The bubble departure diameter is observed to be almost three times larger and the growth period almost 60 times longer for the hydrophobic surface than for the hydrophilic surface. The waiting period is practically zero for the hydrophobic surface because a small residual bubble nucleus is left behind on the cavity from the previous ebullition cycle. The experimental results are consistent with our numerical simulations. Bubble nucleation occurs on nominally smooth hydrophobic regions with root mean square roughness (Rq) less than 1 nm even at superheat as small as 3 °C. Liquid subcooling significantly affects bubble growth on the hydrophobic surface due to increased bubble surface area. Fundamental understanding of bubble dynamics on heated hydrophobic surfaces will help to develop chemically patterned surfaces with enhanced boiling heat transfer and novel phase-change based micro-actuators and energy harvesters.


Author(s):  
Hongli Xu ◽  
Xishi Wang ◽  
Rui Gu ◽  
Heping Zhang

This paper presents the results of experimental investigation on characteristics of methane-coal dust mixture explosion and its mitigation by ultra-fine water mist. Four E12-1-K type fast response thermocouples, two PCB piezotronic pressure transducers were used to obtain the temperature and pressure history of methane-coal dust mixture explosion and its mitigation by ultra-fine water mist, while a GigaView High-speed camera was used to visualize the processes. Different methane concentrations, coal dust concentrations, diameters of coal particles and volumes of ultra-fine water mist were considered for their effects on methane-coal dust mixture explosion. The temperature of explosion flame, the maximum explosion overpressure, the maximum rate of overpressure rise, and the critical volume flux of ultra-fine water mist were experimentally determined. The results show that the characteristics of the methane-coal dust mixture explosion and the mitigating efficiency by ultra-fine water mist are influenced by the methane concentration, the coal dust concentration, the coal dust diameter and the applied volume flux of ultra-fine water mist. For example, both the maximum explosion overpressure and rate of overpressure rise increased with increasing of coal dust concentrations and methane concentrations. All of the test cases indicate that ultra-fine water mist can mitigate the mixture explosion and suppress the flame propagation efficiently from the images record by high speed video camera.


Fluids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 208
Author(s):  
Peter Reinke ◽  
Jan Ahlrichs ◽  
Tom Beckmann ◽  
Marcus Schmidt

The volume-of-flow method combined with the Rayleigh–Plesset equation is well established for the computation of cavitation, i.e., the generation and transportation of vapor bubbles inside a liquid flow resulting in cloud, sheet or streamline cavitation. There are, however, limitations, if this method is applied to a restricted flow between two adjacent walls and the bubbles’ size is of the same magnitude as that of the clearance between the walls. This work presents experimental and numerical results of the bubble generation and its transportation in a Couette-type flow under the influence of shear and a strong pressure gradient which are typical for journal bearings or hydraulic seals. Under the impact of variations of the film thickness, the VoF method produces reliable results if bubble diameters are less than half the clearance between the walls. For larger bubbles, the wall contact becomes significant and the bubbles adopt an elliptical shape forced by the shear flow and under the influence of a strong pressure gradient. Moreover, transient changes in the pressure result in transient cavitation, which is captured by high-speed imaging providing material to evaluate transient, three-dimensional computations of a two-phase flow.


2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Arvind Jayaprakash ◽  
Sowmitra Singh ◽  
Georges Chahine

The dynamics of a bubble in a dilute bubbly water-air mixture is investigated experimentally and the results compared with a simple homogeneous compressible fluid model in order to elucidate the requirements from a better advanced numerical solution. The experiments are conducted in view of providing input and validation for an advanced bubbly flow numerical model we are developing. Corrections for classical approaches where in the two-phase flow modeling the dynamics of individual bubble is based on spherical isolated bubble dynamics in the liquid or an equivalent homogeneous medium are sought. The main/primary bubble is produced by an underwater spark discharge from charged capacitors, while the bubbly medium is generated using electrolysis. The size of the main bubble is controlled by the discharge voltage, the capacitors size, and the ambient pressure in the container. The size and concentration of the fine bubbles is controlled by the electrolysis voltage, the length, diameter, arrangement, and type of the wires, and also by the pressure imposed in the container. This enables parametric study of the factors controlling the dynamics of the primary bubble and development of relationships between the primary bubble characteristic quantities such as achieved maximum bubble radius and bubble period and the characteristics of the surrounding two-phase medium: micro bubble sizes and void fraction. The dynamics of the main bubble and of the mixture is observed using high speed video photography. The void fraction of the bubbly mixture in the fluid domain is deduced from image analysis of the high speed movies and obtained as a function of time and space. The interaction between the primary bubble and the bubbly medium is analyzed using both field pressure measurements and high-speed videography. Parameters such as the primary bubble energy and the bubble mixture density (void fraction) are varied, and their effects studied. The experimental data is then compared to a simple compressible fluid medium model which accounts for the change in the medium properties in space and time. This helps illustrate where such simple models are valid and where they need improvements. This information is valuable for the parallel development of an Eulerian-Lagrangian code, which accounts for the dynamics of bubbles in the field and their interaction.


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