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Bubble Velocity in Fluids

Saturday, April 20, 2002 8:17:44 PM

name Shihab K.
status student
age 17

Question - what is the relationship between size of a bubble

traveling up in a liquid and the speed of the bubble. and the
relationship between viscosity of the liquid and the speed of the
bubble. as the bubbles rise there size increases due to pressure loss
how can i find the difference in the size of the bubbles as they rise?
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There are relationships governing these, and I have run into them
before. You can look them up in text books on "boiling heat
transfer." For example, please see the boiling section in

Handbook of Heat Transfer Fundamentals, ed. WM Rohsenow, JP Hartnet and EN

Ganic, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1985.

Ali Khounsary, Ph.D.

Argonne National Laboratory
===================================================================
The relationship between the size of a bubble (air) traveling up in a
liquid
(water)and the speed of the bubble is VERY COMPLICATED. Here are some of
the
factors that have to be taken into account [ in no particular order]:
1. The presence of surface active impurities, which accumulate at the
surface of the air/water interface and "lubricate" the rise of the bubble
increasing its speed.
These surface active impurities are not necessarily uniformly distributed
at
the interface either. They tend to accumulate at the lower end of the
rising
bubble.
2. The size of the bubble.
3. The viscosity of the continuous phase, in this case water.
4. The Reynold's number, Re, of the bubble: Re = (Dv)*(Ut)*(r)/(m), where:
Dv = [(6)*(V)/(pi)]^1/3 where V = volumetric rate of flow, and has
dimensions, m^3/sec. (Ut) = the terminal speed of the bubble, meters/sec.
(r) = density of the continuous phase (water). And (m) = viscosity of the
continuous phase. As the value of Re increases in various ranges, the shape
of the bubble will change from a sphere with no circulation, a sphere with
the air circulating due to drag at the air/water interface, and oblate
spheroid, to an irregular mushroom-shape.

And the equations of motion of the rise are solved numerically.

See the book "Viscous Flows -- The Practical Use of Theory" by S. W.

Churchill, especially chapter 17, to see just how messy the problem's
solution is.
It will take a lot of careful reading.

Vince Calder
======================================================================

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