Minerals Engineering, Vol.132, 76-83, 2019
On oscillations of asymmetrically coalescing bubbles
Asymmetric coalescence behavior of a particle laden bubble with a bare bubble was studied experimentally. A bubble was coated with particles of lower density than the medium, in the size range of 90-300 mu m and with a contact angle of 120, and was allowed to coalesce with an uncoated bubble. On coalescence, the bubble surface showed under damped oscillation behavior. The extent of dampening effect was found to be a function of the amount of particles on the particle laden bubble and is quantified by the damping constant. A new method, Interface Displacement (I.D.) method, has been proposed to calculate the damping coefficient by characterizing the local surface oscillation which was dependent on the extent of the adherence of the particles on the bubble surface. It is found to decrease with an increase in the coated particle size as well as with an increase in the particle surface coverage area. The damping constant of oscillations of the coalesced bubble has also been calculated using Change in Projected Area (C.P.A.) method and compared with the proposed method. Although the damping constant that is calculated from both these methods are in agreement, the ID method, which can be used to show the variation of the damping coefficient along the interface, is more advantageous than CPA method. The analysis shows that the variation of damping coefficient along the interface follows a "omega" shaped trend for all the particle sizes and surface coverage area.