Dynamics of gas bubbles in time-variant temperature fields

Journal article

The effect of time-variant temperature on the dynamics of a single gas bubble in a liquid is investigated. With changes in temperature, several physical parameters controlling bubble behaviour change including surface tension, diffusivity, vapour pressure and gas solubility. A single-bubble model is formulated and a numerical simulation implemented to model the radius-time profile of a bubble, across a range of initial bubble sizes and rates of heating, taking into account the aforementioned parameter temperature dependences. The model is validated experimentally in a xanthan gum gel phantom, tracking the evolution of the bubbles using digital photography and an image analysis sizing algorithm. It is shown that the natural tendency for a bubble to dissolve can be reversed by an increase in temperature, but only above a certain radius-dependent threshold rate of heating. © 2010 Cambridge University Press.

Authors: Webb, I; Arora, M; Roy, R; Payne, S; Coussios, C

• Journal: Journal of Fluid Mechanics
• Volume: 663
• Pages: 209-232
• Publication date: 2010-11-25
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022112010003472
• EISSN: 1469-7645
• ISSN: 0022-1120
• Language: English
• Keywords: bubble dynamics