Thermocapillary bubble dynamics in a 2D axis swirl domain

Abstract

The lack of significant buoyancy effects in zero-gravity conditions poses an issue with fluid transfer in a stagnant liquid. In this paper, bubble movement in a stagnant liquid is analysed and presented numerically using a computational fluid dynamics approach. The governing continuum and conservation equations for two-phase flow are solved using the commercial software package Ansys-Fluent v.13. The volume of fluid method is used to track the liquid/gas interface in 2D and 3D domains, which has been found to be a valuable tool for studying the phenomenon of gas–liquid interaction, and the validation results are in reasonable agreement with earlier experimental observations. The flow is driven via Marangoni influence induced by the temperature difference, which in turn drives the bubble from the cold to the hot region. The results indicate that the inherent velocity of bubbles decreases with an increase in Marangoni number; this is in agreement with the results of previous experiments conducted in Kang et al. (Microgravity Sci Technol 20:67–71, 2008). Some three-dimensional simulations will also be performed to compare and examine the results with two-dimensional simulations. The thermocapillary bubble flow in a 2D swirl axisymmetry driven by the rotation of the walls was also carried out for different angular velocities in zero gravity. The bubble migration speed was found to decrease with increasing angular velocity. This occurrence is due to an increase in the pressure gradient between the cylinder’s outer wall and the axis of rotation, which forces the lowest pressure region to shift from the sides of the bubble to the axis of rotation. A deformation of the bubble and the formation of the two vortices inside the bubble are also observed. These new and original findings aim to help support research into space applications.