Dynamics of Taylor bubble interface in vertical turbulent counter-current flow

Abstract

Dynamics of the Taylor bubble interface in the vertical counter-current flow was analyzed with video recordings at 100 – 800 frames per second. Taylor bubbles in air-water mixture were studied on time intervals of up to several minutes in stagnant conditions, where buoyancy is dynamically balanced by the inertial bubble drag in the downward turbulent flow. Taylor bubbles of length from 4 to 10 cm were observed in a pipe of 26 mm diameter at Reynolds numbers based on liquid superficial velocity around 6000. Algorithms, developed for analysis of the interface from the video frames were dedicated to the analysis of the cap and the body of the Taylor bubble. The long time averaging of up to 10 min samples do not end up with axisymmetric time-averaged shape of the bubble, but with an asymmetric bullet-train shape, with the thinnest liquid film observed on the belly of the bullet-train shape bubble. The main result of this study is based on high relative sensitivity of our measurements, which was sufficient to track the dynamics of the tiny disturbance waves with a tenth of mm amplitudes traveling along the interface of the Taylor bubble. Cross-correlations of time-dependent interface fluctuations measured at different spatial positions allowed us to measure propagation speeds of the interface waves. When averaged over sufficiently long time intervals of around a minute, the time averaged propagation velocities are shown to be equal to the convective velocity of the interface. Moreover, waves propagating on both sides of the two-dimensional photographs show clear correlation; crest of the wave on one side of the bubble photograph corresponds to the trough of the wave on the other side.