A Bubble Formation in the Two-Phase System

Abstract

The formation of the bubbles in the liquid was examined numerically and results were successfully compared with the results provided by experiments. The study covered two different patterns defined by different Morton numbers or gas flow rates. The unsteady three dimensional calculations were carried out in code OpenFoam with the volume of fluid approach. Numerical results were in a good match to the experiments in respect to bubble shapes, diameters and Reynolds numbers. More accurate comparison was found for lower gas flow rate then for the higher one. The main reason can be that under higher gas flow rate, a complex flow behavior between gas bubbles and surrounding liquid flow is created which worsens the accuracy of calculations. The main important output of the study was a comparison of the bubble diameters in time. Especially for higher gas flow rates, bubbles are growing rapidly during its climbing. Nevertheless a satisfactory agreement was found between numerics and experiments.