Development of Two-Dimensional Bubble Movement and Development Benchmark Dataset for Numerical Validation

The motion and transport of bubbles in fluid flows have many engineering applications. The rise of a bubble has been a point of interest for both numerical and experimental studies. Various tracking methodologies have been developed, including markers, level sets and volume tracking. In order to validate numerical models of bubble flow, detailed experimental data describing the transient bubble shape is needed. This is best found from a 2D comparison rather than 3D experiment because computational resources for determining an accurate shape can be maximized. No real full time shape and subsequent deformation of this 2D bubble has yet been demonstrated. In this paper 2D bubble experiments have been conducted, in which a single bubble has been injected inside a close-walled tank and the rising of the bubble has been captured through a high speed camera. This data is now being used as a benchmark for numerical interface capturing and two phase flow methodology validations.© 2012 ASME