Journal of Chemical Engineering of Japan, Vol.49, No.6, 519-525, 2016
Shear-Induced Microbubble Generation at High Pressures
The characteristics of microbubble generation were investigated experimentally at pressures up to 6 MPa under methane-water bubbly flows driven by a submersed centrifugal pump in a closed flow loop. The focused beam reflectance measurement was utilized for in-situ microbubble sizing at the pump downstream. The influence of system pressure was evaluated for turbulent shear rates between 4.5 x 10(3) and 23 x 10(3) s(-1) at 298 K and a void fraction of 0.016. The microbubble number density was found to increase significantly with increasing pressure; whereas, the median bubble size fell within the magnitude of the Kolmogoroff microscale. The transient size distribution functions indicated that turbulent shear coalescence plays a significant role at high shear rate above 10(4) s(-1). It was also suggested that the jetting pump flow at higher pressures could enhance microbubble stability.
Keywords:Bubble Size Distribution;Centrifugal Pump;Chord Length;Shear Coalescence;Turbulent Shear Rate