Design of an Experiment for the Study of Bubble Jet Interactions in Microgravity

A new experimental setup for the study of bubble coalescence and bubble jet interactions in microgravity conditions is presented. The section consists of a cavity full of liquid containing two bubble injectors whose separation distance and relative orientation angle can be controlled. Injection of bubbles is based on the generation of a slug flow in a capillary T-junction, which allows a control of bubble size and velocity by means of liquid and gas flow rates. Individual and collective behaviour of bubbles injected in the cavity has been studied. On ground results on the individual trajectories, maximum distance reached, and the delimitation between turbulence and buoyancy regions are presented. The influence on these results of the inclination angle of one injector with respect to gravity has also been considered. A good knowledge of bubble jets behaviour in microgravity will enhance the development of space technologies based on two-phase systems.     

射流对撞流动结构的实验研究

有关射流对撞的流动结构研究目前尚未有公开的文献技导，本文在这方面做了一些初步的实验研究。实验过程是利用两股淹没式轴对称水射流进行对撞实验，用激光荣光法和氢气泡法进行流场显示，通过大量的实验及结果分析，对气流粉碎中的射流对撞过程和流动结构提出了一些定性的认识，文后附了一个应用实例。     

Gas jet iimpingement on a liquid surface in the regime of stable oscillations

We consider the impingement of a gas jet on a liquid surface in a stable oscillatory regime, where by the jet-induced cavity shape in various phases of oscillations is periodically reproduced with high precision. This regime is observed during gas jet impingement at an angle of 30°–40° relative to the surface of a liquid with viscosity above 1 Pa s. A mechanism of the impingement of gas jet on liquid in the oscillatory regime is described that accounts for variation of the shape of the cavity on the liquid surface. It is established that oscillations exhibit a relaxation character. It is a specific feature of the oscillatory process that the gas stream flowing out from cavity separates from the surface of liquid. Stable oscillations in the “gas jet–liquid” system can be used for contactless measurement of the physical properties (in particular, viscosity) of liquids.     

Generation of gas bubbles in microflow using micropipette with ultrasound

Ultrasound was applied to a micropipette micromixer to improve dispersion of gas and liquid in a microchannel. Flow visualization using a high-speed camera was performed to examine the effect of ultrasonic irradiation on bubble generation in the microchannel. Basically, nitrogen gas was injected using a (0.5 µm ID) glass micropipette into ethanol flowing in a rectangular (100 µm×200 µm) microchannel on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). Gas and liquid flow rates were regulated using mass flow controllers. At aflow condition that is typical of bubbly flow, ultrasound was transmitted into the microchannel using a piezo-electric (PZT) transducer over a range of operating voltages (2 to 200 Vp-p) and frequencies (50 to 60 kHz). Images captured during the action of the PZT transducer indicate that bubble formation is influenced by ultrasound. When subjected to ultrasound above 50 Vp-p and at the resonant frequency of the PZT transducer, bubbles formed that were smaller and closer together, signifying enhanced shearing of the gas at the micropipette tip by the liquid. The observation of gas slugs occurring sooner might be attributed to the coalescence of gas bubbles that became closely spaced.     

Some dynamical characteristics of a non-spherical bubble in proximity to a free surface

The motions of a gas bubble in proximity to a free surface with and without buoyancy force, as well as in shallow water are simulated based on a numerical time integration coupled with three-dimensional boundary integral spatial solution. The fluid is assumed to be inviscid, incompressible, and the flow irrotational. The unsteady Bernoulli equation is applied on the free surface and bubble surface as one of the boundary conditions of the Laplace equation for the potential. Improvements have been made in the mesh generation of the free surface and rigid boundary, the modeling of the toroidal bubble after the jet impact and the investigation into the combined effects on the motion of a bubble in the presence of the rigid bottom and free surface. The growth and collapse of a gas bubble together with the formation of the toroidal bubble after the jet impact are simulated. The shapes and positions of the bubble, the trajectories and velocities of the poles of the bubble as well as the pressure distributions in the fluid under different standoff distances and buoyancy parameters are obtained to better illuminate the mechanism underlying the motions of gas bubble and free surface. When a bubble is initiated sufficiently close to a free surface, the free surface spike and the second accelerating phenomenon of the free surface during the collapse phase can be observed. The buoyancy force has significant effects on the jet formation and development within the bubble and it may reverse the direction of the liquid jet when exceeding the effect of the Bjerknes force induced by the free surface. The large contortions in the shallow water and the formation of the high-pressure region between the bubble and the free surface are captured when the bubble is close enough to the rigid bottom and the free surface.     

Experimental investigation of charged liquid jet efflux from a capillary

The shapes and electrical characteristics of charged liquid (water, ethanol, glycerol, castor oil) jets emitted from a metal capillary have been experimentally studied depending on the applied high voltage. A map of efflux regimes in the flow velocity-applied voltage coordinates is constructed for water. The effects of medium viscosity, surface tension, and charge relaxation time on the laws of jet efflux are analyzed.     

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

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.     

Spatial High-Speed-Imaging of Projectile Impacts into Fluids in Microgravity

Impacts of rigid metal projectiles into fluid targets were observed under microgravity conditions using a technique which simultaneously generates multiple images from different angles with microsecond resolution. The impact experiments were performed with velocities of 15 ± 3 km/h into a water surface on the ground and during parabolic flights. To obtain comparable impacts, the fluid was forced to maintain a planar surface in weightlessness by a sharp metal ring attached in a transparent ultrahydrophobic-coated cylinder. The resulting continuous ‘Frozen Reality’® camera pan shots show the liquid surface deformation due to projectile water-entry. While an impacted liquid surface in gravity forms a wine-glass-shaped air cavity, in microgravity, the air cavity is tear-drop-shaped. Shortly after the impact into liquid, the air cavity closes and a large air bubble remains in the fluid due to microgravity. The escaped fluid forms a columnar liquid jet which tears approximately one second after the impact and leaves a satellite drop above the impact surface. The experiments help to understand collisions of kilometer-sized low-gravity bodies in space as they behave fluid-like at high impact velocities.     

Simulated pulsed flow of gas and particles in a horizontal oppose-pulsed gas jets of bubbling fluidized bed

Flow behavior of gas and particles with a horizontal oppose-pulsed gas jets are simulated by means of a three dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model with the kinetic theory of granular flow in a gas-particles bubbling fluidized bed. The effects of amplitudes and frequencies on the hydrodynamics of gas and particles are analyzed. The simulation results are presented in terms of phase velocity vector plot, volume fraction of phases, granular temperature, power spectrum and Reynolds stresses in the bed. Results show that the impingement caused by the oppose-pulsed gas jets oscillates with the variation of pulsed gas velocity. The impingement zone with the high solid volume fraction reciprocates from the left side to the right side through the bed center with the variation of pulsed jet gas velocities. The lateral velocity and gas turbulent kinetic energy, granular temperature and Reynolds stresses of gas and particles are larger near the pulsed gas jets than that at the center of the bed. The large dispersion coefficients of particles using the horizontal oppose-pulsed gas jets enhance the mixing of particles in gas-solid fluidized bed.     

Instability of cylindrical compressible gas jets in viscous liquid streams

Summary A linear stability study of cylindrical compressible gas jets in a moving incompressible viscous liquid medium subject to varicose disturbances is described. It was found that the gas jet is always unstable for a range of wavenumbers at any flow condition. When the gas and liquid velocity are not equal, temporal instability is enhanced by surface tension effects for small Weber numbers, and by aerodynamic interaction between the gas and liquid phase for high Weber numbers (where surface tension has a stabilizing influence). Increasing liquid viscosity always reduces the growth rate and the dominant wavenumber, whereas increasing gas density always increases gas jet instability. It was also found that the relative, rather than the absolute, velocity of the gas and liquid controls temporal instability. Increasing gas compressibility always increases the maximum growth rate and dominant wavenumber. On the other hand, for equal gas and liquid velocities, increasing surface tension always destabilizes, while increasing gas density always stabilizes, the gas jet. For absolute and spatial (or convective) instability, it was shown that the critical Weber number, separating the region of absolute from that of spatial instability, decreases monotonically as the liquid velocity is increased. For a stationary liquid medium, the gas jet is always absolutely unstable, and spatial instability does not exist, in contrast to liquid jets in a stationary gas medium. For sufficiently large liquid velocities, the gas jet is spatially unstable, whereas absolute instability disappears. Further, the absolute velocity of gas and liquid flow controls not only the growth of unstable disturbances, but also the characteristics of the instability. Increasing viscous effects tends to suppress absolute instability, while increasing both gas density and compressibility promotes absolute instability for small liquid velocities (however, their effect diminishes as liquid velocity is increased).     

Experimental Study on Boiling Flow of Liquid Nitrogen in Inclined Tubes—Liquid Slug Length Distribution

An experimental study was carried out to understand the phenomena of the boiling flow of liquid nitrogen in inclined tubes with closed bottom by using the high speed motion analyzer. The tube in the experiment is 1.0 m length and 0.018 m and 0.014 m inner diameter respectively. The range of the inclination angles is 45–90° from the horizontal. The statistical method is employed to analyze the experiment data. The experiment focused on the effect of the inclination angle on the distributions of the liquid slug length along the tube. The experimental results show that the Taylor bubble is easier to coalescence with inclination angle decreasing, but coalescence lessening at 45°. The liquid slug length distributions extend to much larger values for the large tube when x/D is 40 and 50. The mean liquid slug lengths increased first, and then decreased with decreasing θ for two tubes, maximum at 60°.     

陶瓷微孔膜管制造微气泡的研究

气浮工艺中气泡的大小是衡量气泡制造技术的关键.研究了陶瓷微孔膜管产生微气泡的条件,并对两种不同材质的微孔膜管产生微气泡的结果进行了比较,从气泡形成机理上分析了影响气泡粒径分布的因素.实验采用静态显微摄像技术和图像分析系统时气泡粒径分布进行了表征.实验结果表明,利用陶瓷微孔膜管产生的气泡粒径主要集中在15～50 μm之间,平均粒径在25.7～44.2 μm之间.微孔膜管的孔径大小、表面性能,气体流量,剪切流流速,液体表面张力,黏度是影响气泡粒径分布的主要因素.     

空心圆柱低速垂直入水试验研究

为获得空心圆柱垂直入水空泡演化规律和运动特性,利用高速摄像技术对其低速垂直入水过程进行了试验研究。通过对空心圆柱体入水空泡的演化过程的观察和运动参数的测量,讨论分析空心结构对空泡形态演变的影响和不同入水速度下空泡演化过程和模型运动阻力变化。结果表明：空心结构诱发通孔射流使深闭合下的空泡壁由点分离形式变为线分离,出现新的空泡壁收缩形式,运动体尾部出现环状空泡,稳定状态空泡出现气泡分阶段脱落和\     

Liquid magnetic bubbles

A liquid analog of a magnetic bubble domain shift register has been constructed, using ferrofluid and an immiscible liquid. Bubble sizes from 50 to 1000 microns have been observed, with propagation frequencies to 60 Hz and propagation velocities for 300 micron bubbles of up to 6 cm/ sec. Display applications for these phenomena are discussed.     

Effect of gas stream swirls on the instability of viscous annular liquid jets

Summary. A linear temporal instability analysis has been carried out for a viscous annular liquid jet moving in two swirling gas streams of unequal velocities with the gas stream swirling motion represented by free-vortex rotation. It is found that two modes of unstable surface waves exist, the para-sinuous and para-varicose mode. The results of the two limiting flow situations, which are a cylindrical liquid jet in a swirling gas stream and a swirling gas jet in a liquid stream, indicate that their instabilities are associated with the para-varicose mode on the outer interface and para-sinuous mode on the inner interface of the annular liquid jet, respectively. It is shown that the centripetal force induced by the inner gas stream rotation is destabilizing and enhances the jet instability, while the centripetal force produced by the outer gas stream rotation is stabilizing and reduces the instability of annular liquid jets. It is interesting to find that for a para-varicose mode an increase in the outer gas rotation not only reduces the upper cut-off wave number, but also increases the lower cut-off wave number, leading to the significant reduction in the unstable wave number range. The stabilizing effect of the outer gas rotation is much more significant for para-varicose mode, and the destabilizing effect of the inner gas rotation is much more influential for para-sinuous mode. In general, the para-sinuous mode has a much larger growth rate and is predominant in the annular liquid jet breakup process. Therefore, increasing the inner gas stream rotation can significantly enhance the breakup of annular liquid jets for practical spray applications.     

Effects of a hypervelocity jet on a layered target

We present a new approach to the numerical simulations of jet target interactions. We represent the jet by sources of mass, momentum and energy moving with a prescribed velocity. This velocity is related to local flow parameters through the incompressible theory of jet penetration. A Lagrangian, 2-dimensional elastic plastic code is used to model the flow in the target. The interaction between the jet and the target is obtained by appropriate deposition of the jet material with its momentum and energy in the computational mesh of the target. To prevent large grid distortions the grid is continuously rezoned. For normal jet impingement the calculations are carried out with axial symmetry. Oblique incidence is treated approximately considering a “sheet jet” and a two dimensional plane strain flow. Results for normal and 45° oblique jet impacts on a 25.4mm thick homogeneous armor plate are presented. The computed and experimental distributions of behind-the-armor debris are compared. An additional case of a 45° oblique jet penetration into a multi-layered plate is carried out. The flow in the target and its influence on the penetration process is discussed.     

Computational Fluid Dynamics analysis of a jet-induced attrition

The flow dynamics, collisional behavior and attrition rates of a grid jet attrition unit are computationally investigated using a kinetic theory-based approach. Profiles of the flow statistical properties are presented and discussed to describe the jet dynamics. Attrition behavior and rates are analyzed from the local reconstruction of the collision energy spectra. The commonly used jet-induced attrition mechanisms which involve the entrainment of the particles into the jet followed by their acceleration and collision at the jet tip is reproduced by the CFD calculations in this work. Supported by the local attrition rates, it is shown that the shear-based collisions around the jets, due to counter-current particle axial motions, are an additional jet-induced mechanism generating more fines than at the jet tips.     

The Effect of Gas Properties on Bubble Formation,Growth, and Detachment

Bubble formation and growth play an important role in various processes and industries, where the dispersion of gas bubbles in a liquid medium occurs frequently. In this paper, the formation, growth, and detachment of gas bubbles produced from a submerged needle in water are numerically and experimentally investigated. The effect of injected gas properties on bubble characteristics, including bubble diameter, contact angle, and the frequency of bubble formation, is evaluated. In particular, the changes in bubble characteristics during the injection process are investigated for three different gases to evaluate the effect of density and surface tension on the bubble detachment criteria. The present numerical results show an acceptable agreement with experiments under different operating conditions. The results show that the increase in surface tension, and the decrease in gas density result in larger bubble sizes before detachment occurs. Moreover, the bubble generation frequency is found to strongly depend on the contact angle and the surface tension.