Surface tension effects in gas bubble dissolution and growth

Abstract

The influence of surface tension upon the dissolution and growth of a stationary, isolated gas bubble in a fluid is examined. It is demonstrated that for small gas undersaturation of the liquid, surface tension corrections for bubble dissolution are significant for nearly the entire period of bubble dissolution. Also, it is shown that for slight supersaturation of the liquid, when bubble growth occurs, surface tension corrections are non-negligible too. Furthermore, comparisons are made with the quasi-stationary results which seem to indicate that surface tension corrections are of greater significance than convective corrections for small undersaturations. In the case of large undersaturations surface tension corrections are only of importance when the radius of the bubble is small.