Combined experimental and numerical analysis of a bubbly liquid metal flow

Abstract

The paper proposes a combined experimental and numerical procedure for the investigation of bubbly liquid-metal flows. It describes the application to a model configuration consisting of a recirculating GaInSn flow driven by an argon bubble chain. The experimental methods involve X-ray measurements to detect the bubbles and UDV measurements to gain velocity information about the liquid metal. The chosen numerical method is an immersed boundary method extended to deformable bubbles. The model configuration includes typical phenomena occurring in industrial applications and allows insight into the physics of bubbly liquid-metal flows. It constitutes an attractive test case for assessing further experimental and numerical methods.