Microstructure of the flow field around a bubble in counter-current bubbly flow

Experimental study was made on the flow structure around a bubble in air-water bubbly flow. In order to measure velocity profiles around a bubble, an Ultrasonic Velocity Profile monitor was employed, which can obtain an instantaneous velocity profile along its measuring line across a channel. The experiments were carried out in a 100 x 10 mm(2) rectangular channel for the air-water counter-current bubbly flow whose void fraction smaller than 7%. The bubble Reynolds number was ranged between 700 and 1000. Most bubbles had ellipsoidal shapes and rose up with wobbling motions. Our experimental results plotted in the form of non-dimensional velocity profiles show that the velocity field around a bubble has a structure similar to the turbulent boundary layer on a solid wall. On the other hand, an earlier analytical study by Moore [J. Fluid Mech. 16 (1963) 161] used an assumption of a spherical bubble rising in liquid irrotationally, and the solution was derived that the flow around a bubble being composed of a thin boundary layer and its outer main stream in potential flow. In this paper, the relation between these two types of boundary layer structures is discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.