Microstructure of the flow field around a bubble in counter-current bubbly flow

Abstract

Experimental study was made on the flow structure around a bubble in air–water bubbly flow. In order to measure velocity profiles around a bubble, an Ultrasonic Velocity Profile monitor was employed, which can obtain an instantaneous velocity profile along its measuring line across a channel. The experiments were carried out in a 100×10 mm 2 rectangular channel for the air–water counter-current bubbly flow whose void fraction smaller than 7%. The bubble Reynolds number was ranged between 700 and 1000. Most bubbles had ellipsoidal shapes and rose up with wobbling motions. Our experimental results plotted in the form of non-dimensional velocity profiles show that the velocity field around a bubble has a structure similar to the turbulent boundary layer on a solid wall. On the other hand, an earlier analytical study by Moore [J. Fluid Mech. 16 (1963) 161] used an assumption of a spherical bubble rising in liquid irrotationally, and the solution was derived that the flow around a bubble being composed of a thin boundary layer and its outer main stream in potential flow. In this paper, the relation between these two types of boundary layer structures is discussed.