Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effects of Reduced Gravity Conditions on Bubble Dispersion Characteristics in the Bubble Column

  • ORIGINAL ARTICLE
  • Published:
Microgravity Science and Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Bubble-liquid turbulent flow has an excellent heat and mass transfer behaviors than single gas or liquid flow. In order to analyze the effects of normal and reduced gravity on cold bubble-liquid two-phase turbulent flow in bubble column a second-order moment cold bubble-liquid two-phase turbulent model was developed to disclose the bubble dispersion characteristics. Under the reduced gravity condition, volume fraction caused by the decrease of buoyance force is larger than normal gravity level due to bigger bubble solid volume. In addition, bubble frequency is also decreased by in decrease of buoyance force. Normal and shear stresses have strongly anisotropic characteristics at every directions and have larger values under normal gravity than reduced gravity. The liquid turbulent kinetic energy has the two-peak bimodal distribution and weaker than bubble turbulent kinetic energy with one peak unimodal, which is caused by vigorous wake fluctuations. The correlation of fluctuation velocities between bubble and liquid has clearly anisotropic behaviors Under reduced gravity, the bubble motion has a little impact on liquid turbulent flow caused by slight buoyancy force, however, it will greatly reduce the liquid turbulent intensity due to energy cascade transport, which was transformed into bubbles or dissipated by interface friction. Bubble formation and detachment mechanisms affected by gravity conditions lead to the different levels of bubble dispersion distributions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Bhunia, A., KamotanI, Y.: Flow around a bubble on a heated wall in a cross-flowing liquid under microgravity condition. Int. J. Heat Mass Transf. 44, 3895–3905 (2001)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Buyevich, Y., Webbon, B.W.: Bubble formation at a submerged orifice in reduced gravity. Chem. Eng. Sci. 51, 4843–4857 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carrera, J., Parthasarathy, R.N., Gollahalli, S.R.: Bubble formation from a free-standing tube in microgravity. Chem. Eng. Sci. 61, 7007–7018 (2006)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Catherine, C., Xavier, R., Fabre, J.: Bubble coalescence in gas-liquid flow at microgravity conditions. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 20, 243–246 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chahed, J., Colin, C., Masbernat, L.: Turbulence and phase distribution in bubbly pipe flow under microgravity condition. J. Fluids Eng. 124(95) (1956)

  • Chakraborty, I., Ray, B., Biswas, G., Durst, G., Ghoshdastidar, P.S.: Computational investigation on bubble detachment from submerged orifice in quiescent liquid under normal and reduced gravity. Phys. Fluid 21 (6), 2103 (2009)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Colin, C., Fabre, J., Dukler, A.E.: Gas-liquid flow at microgravity conditions I: dispersed bubble and slug flow. Int. J. Multiphase Flow. 17, 533–544 (1992)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Colin, C., Fabre, J., Mc Quillen, J.: Bubble and slug flow at microgravity conditions: state of knowledge and open questions. Chem. Eng. Commun. 141, 155–173 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Colin, C., Riou, X., Fabre, J.: Turbulence and Shear-Induced Coalescence in Gas-Liquid Pipe Flows. In: 5Th International Conference on Multiphase Flow, ICMF’04, Yokohama, Japan (2004)

  • Colin, C., Fabre, J., Kamp, A.: Turbulent bubbly flow in pipe under gravity and microgravity conditions. J. Fluid Mech. 711, 469–515 (2012)

    Article  MathSciNet  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, J.F., Schuler, BOG.: Bubble formation at an orifice in an inviscous liquid. Trans. Inst. Chem. Eng. 38, 335–348 (1960)

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidson, J.F., Schuler, B.O.G.: Bubble formation at an orifice in a viscous liquid. Trans. Inst. Chem. Eng. 38, 144–156 (1960)

    Google Scholar 

  • Druzhinin, O.A., Elghobashi, S.: Direct numerical simulations of bubble-laden turbulent flows using the two-fluid formulation. Phys. Fluids 10, 685–697 (1998)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fujiwara, A., Minato, D., Hishida, H.: Effect of bubble diameter on modification of turbulence in an upward pipe flow. Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 25, 481–488 (2004)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gerlach, D., Alleborn, N., Buwa, V., Durst, F.: Numerical simulation of periodic bubble formation at a submerged orifice with constant gas flow rate. Chem. Eng. Sci. 62, 2109–2125 (2007)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henry K., NahraaY, K.: Prediction of bubble diameter at detachment from a wall orifice in liquid crossflow under reduced and normal gravity conditions. Chem. Eng. Sci. 58, 55–69 (2003)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kamp, A., Chesters, A.K., Colin, C., Fabre, J.: Bubble coalescence in turbulent flows: a mechanistic model for turbulence induced coalescence applied to microgravity bubbly pipe flows. Int. J. Multiph. Flow 27, 1363–1396 (2001)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Kamp, A.M., Chesters, A.K., Colin, C., Fabre, J.: Bubble coalescence in turbulent flows: a mechanistic model for turbulence induced coalescence applied to microgravity bubbly pipe. Int. J. Multiphase Flow 27, 1363–1396 (2001)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Kim, I., Kamotani, Y., Ostrach, S.: Modeling of bubble and drop formation in flowing liquids in microgravity. AIChE J. 40, 19–28 (1994)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y., Li, G.H., Jiang, L.X.: A study on the resistance performance of epoxy nano-composites under the vacuum ultraviolet irradiation. Acta Astronaut. 63, 1343–1349 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Laín, S., Bröder, D., Sommerfeld, M.: Modelling hydrodynamics and turbulence in a bubble column using the Euler-Lagrange. Int. J. Multiphase Flow 28(1381), 1407 (2003)

    MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Lu, J.C., Tryggvason, G.: Effect of bubble deformability in turbulent bubbly upflow in a vertical channel. Phys. Fluids 20, 40701–40714 (2008)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y., Liu, X., Kallio, S., Zhou, L.X.: Hydrodynamic predictions of dense gas–particle flows using a second-order-moment frictional stress model. Adv. Powder Technol. 22, 504–511 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y., Li, G.H., Kallio, S.: Hydrodynamic modeling of dense gas-particle turbulence flows under microgravity space environments. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 23, 1–11 (2011)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Liu, Y., Li, G.H., Jiang, L.X.: Hydrodynamic behavior of dense gas-particle flows under the reduced gravity conditions. Acta Astronaut. 67, 417–423 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin, T.J., Reese, J., Hong, T., Fan, L.S.: Quantitative analysis and computation of two-dimensional bubble columns. AIChE J 42, 301–318 (1996)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mazzitelli, I.M., Lohse, D., Toschi, F.: The effect of microbubble on developed turbulence. Phys. Fluids 15, 685–697 (2003)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Pais, S.C.: Bubble generation in a continuous liquid flow under reduced gravity conditions, p 209170. NASA (1999)

  • Pamperin, O., Rath, H.J.: Influence of buoyancy on bubble formation at submerged orifices. Chem. Eng. Sci. 50, 3009–3024 (1995)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Prince, M.J., Blanch, H.W.: Bubble coalescence and breakup in air-sparged bubble columns. AIChE J. 36, 1485–1499 (1990)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paul, S., Balakotaiah, V.: Impact of gravity on the bubble-to-pulse transition in packed beds. AIChE J 60, 778–793 (2014)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pantanker, S.V.: Numerical heat transfer and fluid flow. Hemisphere Publishing Corporation (1980)

  • Pang, M.J., Wei, J.J., Yu, B., Kawaguchi, Y.: Numerical investigation on turbulence and bubbles distribution in bubbly flow under normal gravity and microgravity conditions. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 22, 283–294 (2010)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rite, R.W., Rezkallah KS.: Local and mean heat transfer coefficients in bubbly and slug flows under microgravity conditions. Int. J. Multiph. Flow 23, 37–54 (1997)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Reese, J., Fan, L.S.: Visualization of flow characteristics in a 2D bubble column and three-phase fluidized bed. AIChE J. 39, 733–748 (1993)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shawkat, M.E., Ching, C.Y., Bubble, Shoukri M.: liquid turbulence characteristics of bubbly flow in a large diameter vertical pipe. Int. J Multiphase Flow 34, 767–785 (2008)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tsuge, H., Terasaka, K., Matsue, H.: Bubble formation at submerged nozzles for small gas flow rate under low gravity. Chem. Eng. Sci. 52, 3415–3420 (1997)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, L.X., Li, R.X., Du, R.X.: Numerical simulation of the effect of void fraction and inlet velocity on two-phase turbulence in bubble–liquid flows. Acta Mech. Sin. 22, 425–432 (2006)

    Article  MATH  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, L.X., Yang, M., Lian, C.Y., Fan, L.S., Lee, DJ.: On the second-order moment turbulence model for simulating a bubble column. Chem. Eng. Sci. 57, 3269–3281 (2002)

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou, L.X., Yang, M., Fan, L.S.: A second-order moment three-phase turbulence model for simulating gas–liquid–solid flows. Chem. Eng. Sci. 60, 647–653 (2005)

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We sincerely appreciated the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China, No.51278076.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Dalian Jiaotong University, Dalian, 116028, China

    Guohui Li

  2. Faculty of Infrastructure Engineering, Dalian University of Technology Dalian, Dalian, 116024, China

    Xiangli Li

Authors
  1. Guohui Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xiangli Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guohui Li.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Li, G., Li, X. Effects of Reduced Gravity Conditions on Bubble Dispersion Characteristics in the Bubble Column. Microgravity Sci. Technol. 28, 441–450 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-016-9500-2

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12217-016-9500-2

Keywords

Search

Navigation