Evolution of deviations from the spherical shape of a vapor bubble in supercompression

This paper considers the evolution of small deviations of a cavitation bubble from a spherical shape during its single compression under conditions of experiments on acoustic cavitation of deuterated acetone. Vapor motion in the bubble and the surrounding liquid is defined as a superposition of the spherical component and its non-spherical perturbation. The spherical component is described taking into account the nonstationary heat conductivity of the liquid and vapor and the nonequilibrium nature of the vaporization and condensation on the interface. At the beginning of the compression process, the vapor in the bubble is considered an ideal gas with a nearly uniform pressure. In the simulation of the high-rate compression stage, realistic equations of state are used. The non-spherical component of motion is described taking into account the effect of liquid viscosity, surface tension, vapor density in the bubble, and nonuniformity of its pressure. Estimates are obtained for the amplitude of small perturbations (in the form of harmonics of degree n = 2, 3, ... with the wavelength λ = 2πR/n, where R is the bubble radius) of the spherical shape of the bubble during its compression until reaching extreme values of pressure, density, and temperature. These results are of interest in the study of bubble fusion since the non-sphericity of the bubble prevents its strong compression.     

Dynamics of a bubble in a liquid under laser pulse action

Simulation was performed of the behavior of a vapor bubble in a liquid under laser irradiation in laboratory experiments. A mathematical model was developed to analyze the effect of heat conduction, diffusion, and mass transfer on the bubble dynamics under compression and expansion. It is found that at the stage of collapse, intense condensation occurs on the bubble wall, which results in a significant (more than 15fold) decrease in bubble mass and an increase in pressure (to 10⁵ atm) and temperature (to 10⁴ K(. Results of numerical calculations of the radius of the first rebound and the amplitude of the divergent shock wave in water are compared with experimental data. It is shown that small (:about 1%) additives of an incondensable gas lead to a considerable decrease in mass transfer on the bubble wall.     

Piezonuclear Fission Reactions from Earthquakes and Brittle Rocks Failure: Evidence of Neutron Emission and Non-Radioactive Product Elements

Neutron emission measurements, by means of He³ devices and bubble detectors, were performed during three different kinds of compression tests on brittle rocks: (i) under monotonic displacement control, (ii) under cyclic loading, and (iii) by ultrasonic vibration. The material used for the tests was Luserna stone, with different specimen sizes and shapes, and consequently with different brittleness numbers. Some studies had been already conducted on the different forms of energy emitted during the failure of brittle materials. They are based on the signals captured by acoustic emission measurement systems, or on the detection of electromagnetic charge. On the other hand, piezonuclear neutron emissions from very brittle rock specimens in compression have been discovered only very recently. In this paper, the authors analyse this phenomenon from an experimental point of view. Since the analyzed material contains iron, additional experiments have been performed on steel specimens subjected to tension and compression, observing, also in this case, neutron emissions well distinguishable from the background level. Our conjecture is that piezonuclear reactions involving fission of iron into aluminum, or into magnesium and silicon, should have occurred during compression damage and failure. This hypothesis is confirmed by the direct evidence of Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS) tests conducted on the specimens. It is also interesting to emphasize that the anomalous chemical balances of the major events that have affected the geomechanical and geochemical evolution of the Earth’s Crust should be considered as an indirect evidence of the piezonuclear fission reactions considered above.     

Drop and Bubble Deformation in an Electric Field

A steady problem of drop (bubble) shape in a uniform electric field is considered when the drop and the surrounding medium are immiscible. The electric-charge transport includes both the ohmic current across the interphase boundary and convective transport over the interface. If there is no convective transport, the drop (bubble) may be transformed into either an elongated or a flattened spheroid. Under these conditions, the sign of the deformation remains unchanged for arbitrary values of the problem parameters. Convective charge transport along the surface initiates additional motion in both the drop and the surrounding medium. However, with increase in the convective-transport intensity the deformed drops display different behavior. The compression of a flattened drop slows and, under certain conditions, compression is replaced by extension. However, an elongated spheroid cannot be transformed into a flattened spheroid. The calculations were performed under the assumption that the drop is convex. It was found that, for both an elongated and a flattened drop, the maximum ratio of the major and minor spheroid axes is 2:1. In experiments with oils, the possibility of both a decrease in the drop compression rate and deformation sign reversal was demonstrated.     

Effect of weak compressibility of a fluid on bubble-bubble interaction in strong acoustic fields

The effect of weak compressibility of a fluid on the interaction between spherical bubbles in a strong acoustic field is considered. A small parameter ɛ which represents the ratio of the characteristic velocity of radial oscillations of the bubbles to the speed of sound in the fluid is used as a parameter characterizing the fluid compressibility. The equations governing the interaction between two bubbles are derived with an accuracy O(ɛ) in the case in which the ratio of the characteristic velocities of their translational and radial motions is of the order of ɛ. It is shown that neglecting the fluid compressibility effect due to the bubble interaction can lead to either enhancement or attenuation of their radial oscillations following the main compression stage, variation in the oscillation frequency, the bubble approach velocity, and the velocity of the spatial motion of the coupled pair, and the bubble approach and collision rather than their moving away from one another with the formation of a coupled pair.     

Axisymmetric simulation of the interaction of a rising bubble with a rigid surface in viscous flow

The interaction between a rising deformable gas bubble and a solid wall in viscous liquids is investigated by direct numerical simulation via an arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) approach. The flow field is assumed to be axisymmetric. The bubble is driven by gravity only and the motion of the gas inside the bubble is neglected. Deformation of the bubble is tracked by a moving triangular mesh and the liquid motion is obtained by solving the Navier–Stokes equations in a finite element framework. To understand the mechanisms of bubble deformation as it interacts with the wall, the interaction process is studied as a function of two dimensionless parameters, namely, the Morton number (Mo) and Bond number (Bo). We study the range of Bo and Mo from (2, 6.5 × 10⁻⁶) to (16, 0.1). The film drainage process is also considered in this study. It is shown that the deformation of a bubble interacting with a solid wall can be classified into three modes depending on the values of Mo and Bo.     

Dynamics of vapor-gas bubbles

The nonlinear problem of thermal, mass, and dynamic interaction between a vapor-gas bubble and a liquid is considered. The results of numerical solution of the problem of radial motion of the bubble caused by a sudden pressure change in the liquid, illustrating the behavior of vapor-gas bubbles in compression and rarefaction waves, are presented. The corresponding problem for single-component gas and vapor bubbles was considered in [1, 2].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 6, pp. 56–61, November–December. 1976.     

Motion of singles bubbles moving under a slightly inclined surface through stationary liquids

The influence of the liquid properties on the dynamical bubble shape and on the bubble motion has been investigated for bubbles moving under a downward facing inclined surface. The Morton number Mo varied from 2.59 × 10⁻¹¹ to 2.52 × 10⁺⁰¹. The Bond number Bo covered the range from 10 to 150 and the surface inclination angle θ was varied from 2° to 6°. To cover the wide range of Mo, several liquids such as glycerine, propanediol, water and isopropanol were used. The results have shown that the relation Fr = Fr(Bo, Mo, θ) is not adequate to describe the bubble motion, where Fr is the terminal Froude number. The choice of the terminal Reynolds number Re as the dependent parameter, allowed the clarification of the role of the Morton number on the bubble motion. At a given Bond number, the bubble Reynolds number decreases monotonously with the Morton number. Furthermore, an empirical correlation Re = Re(Bo, Mo, θ) is given that can be readily used in the mathematical modelling of bubble laden flows under solids.     

Pressure-oscillation defoaming for viscoelastic fluid

The enhancement of bubble rising velocity was experimentally investigated by mechanically applying an oscillating pressure to a single small air bubble (e.g., 1 mm³) in a viscoelastic fluid. For shear-thinning fluids, the cyclic change in bubble diameter induced by the oscillating pressure generates a continuous strong local flow near the bubble surface. Consequently, the apparent liquid viscosity is reduced and the bubble rising velocity increases by 400 times or more compared to the case without oscillating pressure. However, for a Newtonian fluid, almost no effect was observed with oscillating pressure. Time-series data of the longitudinal and horizontal bubble diameters were obtained experimentally using a stroboscope and a video system, and these data were used to estimate the local shear rate and the local shear viscosity. The increase in bubble rising velocity estimated from the shear viscosity behavior agreed well with the experimental data. Additionally, a periodic change in the bubble shape from a sphere at the maximum bubble size to a cusped shape at the minimum bubble size was observed under strong oscillatory pressure.     

Steady rise of a small spherical gas bubble along the axis of a cylindrical pipe at high Reynolds number

Steady irrotational flow of inviscid liquid of density ρ_l around a spherical gas bubble which lies on the axis of a cylindrical pipe is investigated using the analysis of Smythe (Phys. Fluids 4 (1961) 756). The bubble radius b=qa is assumed small compared to the pipe radius a, and the interfacial tension between gas and liquid is γ. Far from the bubble, in the frame in which the bubble is at rest, the liquid velocity along the pipe is v₀, whereas the liquid velocity at points on the wall closest to the bubble is U_zw=v₀(1+1.776q³+⋯). The decrease in wall pressure as the bubble passes is therefore Δp=1.776ρ_lv₀²q³. When the Weber number W=2bv₀²ρ_l/γ is small, the bubble deforms into an oblate spheroid with aspect ratio χ=1+9W(1+1.59q³)/64. If the fluid viscosity μ is non-zero, and the Reynolds number Re=2v₀ρ_lb/μ is large, a viscous boundary layer develops on the walls of the pipe. This decays algebraically with distance downstream of the bubble, and an exponentially decaying similarity solution is found upstream. The drag D on the bubble is D=12πμv₀b(1−2.21Re^−1/2)(1+1.59q³)+7.66μv₀bRe^1/2q^9/2, larger than that given by Moore (J. Fluid Mech. 16 (1963) 161) for motion in unbounded fluid. At high Reynolds numbers the dissipation within the viscous boundary layers might dominate dissipation in the potential flow away from the pipe walls, but such high Reynolds numbers would not be achieved by a spherical air bubble rising in clean water under terrestrial gravity.     

Dynamics of a small bubble in a compressible fluid

An efficient (simplified) method for solving problems of spherically symmetric dynamics of a small gas bubble in a compressible fluid is proposed. The method is based on the joint use of the full problem statement (the gas dynamics equations for the gas and the fluid) and its relevant simplifications. Some approximate statements are discussed. In the proposed method, the rarefaction and compression of the gas during the slow motion of the bubble surface is assumed to be uniform over the bubble volume. At the same time the fluid in the thin zone adjacent to the bubble is considered to be slightly compressible. Otherwise the gas dynamics equations are used for the gas and the fluid. The dynamics of the fluid in the thick external zone are described by the linear acoustics only. The proposed simplified method and two others used in literature are estimated by comparison of their numerical results with those obtained in full statement. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Patterns and heat transfer in Rayleigh-Bénard thermal gravitational convection in helium (<Superscript>3</Superscript>He) near the critical point

Thermal gravitational convection in a bottom-heated layer of near-critical ³He is considered. The range of criteria determining the convection parameters beyond the stability threshold is discussed. The specific features of 2D and 3D supercritical structures, the adiabatic compression effect, and heat transfer are considered.     

Evolution of a Small Distortion of the Spherical Shape of a Gas Bubble under Strong Expansion-Compression

The evolution of a small distortion of the spherical shape of a gas bubble which undergoes strong radial expansion-compression upon a single oscillation of the ambient liquid pressure under a harmonic law are analyzed by numerical experiments. It is assumed that the distortions of the spherical bubble shape are axisymmetric and have the form of individual spherical surface harmonics with numbers of 2–5. Bubble-shape oscillations prior to the beginning of expansion are taken into account. Generally, the distortion value during bubble expansion-compression depends on the phase of bubble-shape oscillation at the beginning of the expansion (initial phase). Emphasis is placed on the dependence of the maximum distortions in the initial phase at certain characteristic times of bubble expansion-compression on the amplitude of the external excitation, liquid viscosity, and distortion mode (harmonic number). The parameters of the problem are typical of the stable periodic sonolumiescence of an individual air bubble in water at room temperature. An exception is the liquid pressure oscillation amplitude, which is varied up to values that are five times the static pressure. That large excitation amplitudes are beyond the stability threshold of periodic oscillations of spherical bubbles. Their consideration is of interest from the point of view of increasing the compression ratio of the bubble gas, i. e., increasing the maximum temperature and density achievable in the final compression stage.__________Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 46, No. 4, pp. 17–28, July–August, 2005.     

Blasenbewegung aufgrund von Marangonikonvektion

This is an experimental study on gas bubble motion in a vertical temperature gradient. Surface tension convection (Marangoni convection) superimposing gravity is discussed with respect to the theory of Young et al. as another cause for bubble motion. The Marangoni numbers for the convection inside the bubble (N ⁱ _Ma) and outside the bubble in the medium (N ^e _Ma) are introduced as criterion for the applicability of the theory. It is shown by the experiments that the Young theory holds up to Marangoni numbersN ⁱ _Ma=10^?2 and N^e _Ma=2, respectively.     

Effect of bubble size on void fraction fluctuations in dispersed bubble flows

It is known that bubble size affects seriously the average void fraction in bubbly flows where buoyant velocities vary considerably with bubble size. On the contrary, there is no systematic literature report about bubble size effects on the intensity and frequency of void fraction fluctuations around the average void fraction. This work aims to provide such information. An electrical impedance technique is employed along with non-intrusive ring electrodes to register void fraction fluctuations down to 10⁻⁵. Bubble size fluctuations are estimated from high resolution optical images. Experiments are conducted in co-current upward dispersed bubble flow inside a 21 mm tube with average bubble size between ∼50 and ∼700 μm. Water and blood simulant are used as test liquids with velocity from ∼3 to ∼30 cm s⁻¹. The above resemble conditions of Decompression Sickness (DCS) in the bloodstream of human vena cava. It is found that the intensity and frequency of void fraction fluctuations vary appreciably with bubble size at constant gas and liquid flow rates. Moreover, these variations are not random but scale with bubble size. As a first step to quantify this effect, an empirical expression is derived that relates average bubble size to the ratio standard deviation/average value of void fraction.     

Numerical simulation of a bubble rising in shear-thinning fluids

The motion of a single bubble rising freely in quiescent non-Newtonian viscous fluids was investigated experimentally and computationally. The non-Newtonian effects in the flow of viscous inelastic fluids are modeled by the Carreau rheological model. An improved level set approach for computing the incompressible two-phase flow with deformable free interface is used. The control volume formulation with the SIMPLEC algorithm incorporated is used to solve the governing equations on a staggered Eulerian grid. The simulation results demonstrate that the algorithm is robust for shear-thinning liquids with large density (ρ₁/ρ_g up to 10³) and high viscosity (η₁/η_g up to 10⁴). The comparison of the experimental measurements of terminal bubble shape and velocity with the computational results is satisfactory. It is shown that the local change in viscosity around a bubble greatly depends on the bubble shape and the zero-shear viscosity of non-Newtonian shear-thinning liquids. The shear-rate distribution and velocity fields are used to elucidate the formation of a region of large viscosity at the rear of a bubble as a result of the rather stagnant flow behind the bubble. The numerical results provide the basis for further investigations, such as the numerical simulation of viscoelastic fluids.     

Ellipsoidal Oscillations of a Gas Bubble with Periodic Variation of the Surrounding Fluid Pressure

Ellipsoidal linear and nonlinear oscillations of a gas bubble under harmonic variation of the surrounding fluid pressure are studied. The system is considered under conditions in which periodic sonoluminescence of the individual bubble in a standing acoustic wave is observable. A mathematical model of the bubble dynamics is suggested; in this model, the variation of the gas/fluid interface shape is described correct to the square of the amplitude of the deformation of the spherical shape of the bubble. The character of the air bubble oscillations in water is investigated in relation to the initial bubble radius and the fluid pressure variation amplitude. It is shown that nonspherical oscillations of limited amplitude can occur outside the range of linearly stable spherical oscillations. In this case, both oscillations with a period equal to one or two periods of the fluid pressure variation and aperiodic oscillations can be observed.     

Origin of regime transition to turbulent flow in bubble column: Orifice- and column-induced transitions

The possible events during bubble formation on an orifice were investigated using a rectangular bubble column (30 cm × 30 cm × 100 cm). The gas flow rate through a single orifice was adjusted from 0.1 dm³/min to 5.0 dm³/min covering a high flow rate regime. At the high gas flow rate, the bubble formation process was complicated by diverse events, such as wake effect, channeling, and orifice-induced turbulent flow. The detachment period could be used to discern the bubble formation steps because it was strongly affected by the above events. The bubble size distribution around the orifice was also analyzed to gain a clearer understanding of the bubble formation process. Above the rate of 3.0 dm³/min through a single orifice, the detachment period converged to a value of 25 ms irrespective of the orifice diameter. The bubble size distribution also showed little difference in this range of gas flow rate. This could be explained by the development of turbulent flow around the orifice. A 0.15 m in-diameter bubble column was tested to investigate the effect of orifice-induced turbulent flow on the regime transition in which the homogeneous flow regime is converted into the heterogeneous flow regime in the column. Obvious distinction between the orifice- and column-induced transitions was observed.     

Experimental study of the shock–bubble interaction with reshock

The interaction of a planar shock wave with a spherical density inhomogeneity is studied experimentally under reshock conditions. Reshock occurs when the incident shock wave, which has already accelerated the spherical bubble, reflects off the tube end wall and reaccelerates the inhomogeneity for a second time. These experiments are performed at the Wisconsin Shock Tube Laboratory, in a 9m-long vertical shock tube with a large square cross section (25.4×25.4 cm²). The bubble is prepared on a pneumatically retracted injector and released into a state of free fall. Planar diagnostic methods are used to study the bubble morphology after reshock. Data are presented for experiments involving two Atwood numbers (A = 0.17 and 0.68) and three Mach numbers (1.35 < M < 2.33). For the low Atwood number case, a secondary vortex ring appears immediately after reshock which is not observed for the larger Atwood number. The post-reshock vortex velocity is shown to be proportional to the incident Mach number, M, the initial Atwood number, A, and the incident shock wave speed, W _i.     

An investigation on near wall transport characteristics in an adiabatic upward gas–liquid two-phase slug flow

The near-wall transport characteristics, inclusive of mass transfer coefficient and wall shear stress, which have a great effect on gas–liquid two-phase flow induced internal corrosion of low alloy pipelines in vertical upward oil and gas mixing transport, have been both mechanistically and experimentally investigated in this paper. Based on the analyses on the hydrodynamic characteristics of an upward slug unit, the mass transfer in the near wall can be divided into four zones, Taylor bubble nose zone, falling liquid film zone, Taylor bubble wake zone and the remaining liquid slug zone; the wall shear stress can be divided into two zones, the positive wall shear stress zone associated with the falling liquid film and the negative wall shear stress zone associated with the liquid slug. Based on the conventional mass transfer and wall shear stress characteristics formulas of single phase liquid full-pipe turbulent flow, corrected normalized mass transfer coefficient formula and wall shear stress formula are proposed. The calculated results are in good agreement with the experimental data. The shear stress and the mass transfer coefficient in the near wall zone are increased with the increase of superficial gas velocity and decreased with the increase of superficial liquid velocity. The mass transfer coefficients in the falling liquid film zone and the wake zone of leading Taylor bubble are lager than those in the Taylor bubble nose zone and the remaining liquid slug zone, and the wall shear stress associated falling liquid film is larger than that associated the liquid slug. The mass transfer coefficient is within 10⁻³ m/s, and the wall shear stress below 10³ Pa. It can be concluded that the alternate wall shear stress due to upward gas–liquid slug flow is considered to be the major cause of the corrosion production film fatigue cracking.