Analysis of bubble rise using the VOF method. 1: Isolated bubbles
- Univ. of New South Wales, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia). School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering
- Univ. of Technology, Sydney, New South Wales (Australia)
- Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI (United States). Dept. of Mechanical Engineering
The motion of a gas bubble in an otherwise stationary liquid contained in a closed, right vertical cylinder is investigated using a modified Volume-of-Fluid (VOF) method incorporating surface tension stresses. Starting from a perfectly spherical bubble which is initially at rest, the upward motion of the bubble in a gravitational field is accurately determined by tracking the liquid-gas interface. The initial radius of the bubble is small compared to the cylinder radius so that the influence of the container walls on the bubble motion is negligible. The gas in the bubble can be treated as incompressible. The problem is simulated using primitive variables in a control-volume formulation in conjunction with the interpolation technique of Rhie and Chow (1983), to avoid oscillations in the pressure and velocity fields. The pressure-velocity coupling is based on the SIMPLE algorithm. The modified VOF method used in this study is able to identify and physically treat features such as bubble deformation, cuspformation, breakup and joining. Results in a two-dimensional as well as a three-dimensional coordinate framework are presented. The bubble deformation and its motion are characterized by the Reynolds number, the Bond number, the density ratio, the viscosity ratio, and the ratio of the cylinder radius to that of the initial bubble. The effects of these parameters on the bubble rise are discussed. Physical mechanisms for the computational results obtained are presented. The results agree with experiments reported in the literature.
- OSTI ID:
- 428073
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-960815--; ISBN 0-7918-1508-0
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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