A computational study of the effect of initial bubble conditions on the motion of a gas bubble rising in viscous liquids

Abstract In order to examine the influence of initial bubble conditions on bubble rise motion, two-dimensional direct numerical simulations of the motion of a gas bubble rising in viscous liquids were carried out by a coupled level set/volume-of-fluid (CLSVOF) method. For dimensionless groups predicting a “spherical-cap bubble shape” (high Eotvos and low Morton numbers), we have found computationally that solutions depend on initial bubble conditions. Specifically, for spherical-cap bubble areas, we could obtain computational results of toroidal bubbles or spherical-cap bubbles depending on initial bubble conditions. On the other hand, we showed for low Eo and high M conditions that initial bubble conditions did not affect the final state of bubble rise motion.

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