A look at three measurement techniques for bubble size determination

Abstract Three methods for measuring the volume and the equivalent radius of air bubbles at detachment from the tip of different capillary tubes in quiescent water were tested. The aim was to provide an accurate cross-calibration of two of the methods against a standard laboratory method. The inverted funnel method is the laboratory standard and performed within a 0.5% repeatability error for 50 bubble sets. The passive acoustic method performed within an accuracy between 97% and 99% with respect to the inverted funnel method. The photographic method gave an accuracy between 88% and 96%. After improvement of the photographic method by an empirical cutting edge criterion, its accuracy was raised between 95% and 99%. The bubble shape at detachment was found to be fitted by a Cassini’s oval or by a Bernoulli’s lemniscate according to the formation time. Qualitative observations on the bubble formation stage indicated an early vertical nose growth for the larger diameter capillary tubes at short formation times. The major-axis vertical and horizontal lengths were measured as functions of time at the formation stage.

[1]  T. Leighton.  The Acoustic Bubble , 1994 .

[2]  W. Asher,et al.  The influence of bubble plumes on air-seawater gas transfer velocities , 1995 .

[3]  T. Leighton,et al.  An experimental study of the sound emitted from gas bubbles in a liquid , 1987 .

[4]  R. C. Saunders,et al.  High concentrations ammonia removal by the cyanobacterium plectonema boryanum in a photobioreactor system , 1999 .

[5]  Ira Leifer,et al.  Optical Measurement of Bubbles: System Design and Application , 2003 .

[6]  Michael D. Kelleher,et al.  Experimental Heat Transfer, Fluid Mechanics, and Thermodynamics 1993. , 1993 .

[7]  António Joaquim Serralheiro,et al.  Bubble size in aerated stirred tanks , 2002 .

[8]  Bubble formation processes and bubble acoustic signals , 1998 .

[9]  S. Vergniolle,et al.  Strombolian explosions 2. Eruption dynamics determined from acoustic , 1996 .

[10]  I. Leifer,et al.  Temporal variation in natural methane seep rate due to tides, Coal Oil Point area, California , 2001 .

[11]  Ira Leifer,et al.  The bubble mechanism for methane transport from the shallow sea bed to the surface: A review and sensitivity study , 2002 .

[12]  H. de Lasa,et al.  Interaction between bubbles and fibre optic probes in a bubble column , 1992 .

[13]  P. C. Duineveld,et al.  The rise velocity and shape of bubbles in pure water at high Reynolds number , 1995, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[14]  Gerard J. Kunz,et al.  Calibrating optical bubble size by the displaced-mass method , 2003 .

[15]  M. Barigou,et al.  A capillary suction prove for bubble size measurement , 1991 .

[16]  R. Clift,et al.  Bubbles, Drops, and Particles , 1978 .

[17]  Hiroshi Naruse,et al.  Reduction of Obscuration Noise Using Multiple Images , 1988, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[18]  M. Minnaert.  XVI.On musical air-bubbles and the sounds of running water , 1933 .

[19]  F. Durst,et al.  Experiments on the rise of air bubbles in clean viscous liquids , 1996, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[20]  Frédéric Risso,et al.  On the rise of an ellipsoidal bubble in water: oscillatory paths and liquid-induced velocity , 2001, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[21]  K. Lunde,et al.  A Method for the Detailed Study of Bubble Motion and Deformation , 1995 .

[22]  Samim Anghaie,et al.  An experimental study of electrical impedance tomography for the two-phase flow visualization , 2002 .

[23]  S. Friedlander,et al.  Smoke, dust, and haze , 2000 .

[24]  Herman Medwin,et al.  Ambient and transient bubble spectral densities in quiescent seas and under spilling breakers , 1989 .

[25]  Julie Varley,et al.  The uses of passive measurement of acoustic emissions from chemical engineering processes , 2001 .

[26]  Comparison of Theoretical and Experimental Characteristics of Oscillating Bubbles , 2002 .

[27]  Ira Leifer,et al.  A Study on the Temperature Variation of Rise Velocity for Large Clean Bubbles , 2000 .

[28]  Hubert Chanson,et al.  Air Entrainment Processes in a Circular Plunging Jet: Void-Fraction and Acoustic Measurements , 2003 .

[29]  M. Minnarert,et al.  Musical air-bubbles and the sound of running water , 1933 .

[30]  Andrea Prosperetti,et al.  Dynamics of bubble growth and detachment from a needle , 1993, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[31]  R. Whitmore,et al.  Experimental determination of the wall effect for spheres falling axially in cylindrical vessels , 1961 .

[32]  Morteza Gharib,et al.  Experimental studies on the shape and path of small air bubbles rising in clean water , 2002 .

[33]  A. Plaskowski,et al.  Application of optical tomography for measurements of aeration parameters in large water tanks , 2003 .

[34]  Cedric Briens,et al.  NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE BREWING INDUSTRY USING IMMOBILISED YEAST CELL BIOREACTOR SYSTEMS , 1997 .

[35]  I. Eames,et al.  The Motion of High-Reynolds-Number Bubbles in Inhomogeneous Flows , 2000 .

[36]  Bryan R. Kerman,et al.  The release of air bubbles from an underwater nozzle , 1991 .

[37]  R. Manasseh,et al.  Passive acoustic bubble sizing in sparged systems , 2001 .

[38]  Armando Domínguez,et al.  Understanding images of bubbles , 2000 .

[39]  L. van Wijngaarden,et al.  Two-phase flow equations for a dilute dispersion of gas bubbles in liquid , 1984, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[40]  D. Manley.  Change of size of air bubbles in water containing a small dissolved air content , 1960 .

[41]  A. Biesheuvel,et al.  Notes on the Path and Wake of a Gas Bubble Rising in Pure Water , 2001 .

[42]  A. Nikolovska,et al.  Anisotropy in the sound field generated by a bubble chain , 2004 .

[43]  S. Vergniolle,et al.  Strombolian explosions 1. A large bubble breaking at the surface of a lava , 1996 .

[44]  M. Rosenberg,et al.  Biotransformation of glucose to gluconic acid by Aspergillus niger—study of mass transfer in an airlift bioreactor , 2002 .