Turbulent Characteristic of Liquid Around a Chain of Bubbles in Non-Newtonian Fluid

Abstract

The turbulence behavior of gas-liquid two-phase flow plays an important role in heat transfer and mass transfer in many chemical processes. In this work, a 2D particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to investigate the turbulent characteristic of fluid induced by a chain of bubbles rising in Newtonian and non-Newtonian fluids. The instantaneous flow field, turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and TKE dissipation rate were measured. The results demonstrated that the TKE profiles were almost symmetrical along the column center and showed higher values in the central region of the column. The TKE was enhanced with the increase of gas flow and decrease of liquid viscosity. The maximum TKE dissipation rate appeared on both sides of the bubble chain, and increased with the increase of gas flow rate or liquid viscosity. These results provide an understanding for gas-liquid mass transfer in non-Newtonian fluids.