This thesis is focused attention on one-dimensional models for fast transient flows in a kinematic non-equilibrium. Besides the thermodynamic non-equilibrium, there is another type of non-equilibrium: the kinematic non-equilibrium, or drift between the phases. Such flow models include bubbly gas/liquid flows which are characterized by strong coupling between the phases, due to the rapid interphase transfers of mass, momentum and energy. As a consequence the assumptions that the phase pressures and the phase temperatures are equal at any cross-section appear consistent with experimental observations. The set of equations includes a momentum equation which has the form of a relaxation law of the drift velocity. This equation is based on a simplified version of the so-called Voinov - Berne equation for the momentum of the gas in a bubbly flow. The ability of the model to predict steady state critical flows is tested first. This is done by means of an analysis of the sensitivity to variations of the main parameters, and also by comparing the results with two sets of original experimental data on air-water critical flows. Finally, the model is tested in transient conditions, modelling the water hammer phenomena.

No description available.

Many flow regimes in Nuclear Reactor Safety Research are characterized by multiphase flows, with one phase being a continuous liquid and the other phase consisting of gas or vapour of the liquid phase. In dependence on the void fraction of the gaseous phase the flow regimes e.g. in vertical pipes are varying from bubbly flows with low and higher volume fraction of bubbles to slug flow, churn turbulent flow, annular flow and finally to droplet flow. In the regime of bubbly and slug flow the multiphase flow shows a spectrum of different bubble sizes. While disperse bubbly flows with low gas volume fraction are mostly mono-disperse, an increase of the gas volume fraction leads to a broader bubble size distribution due to breakup and coalescence of bubbles. Bubbles of different sizes are subject to lateral migration due to forces acting in lateral direction different from the main drag force direction. The bubble lift force was found to change the sign dependent on the bubble size. Consequently this lateral migration leads to a de-mixing of small and large bubbles and to further coalescence of large bubbles migrating towards the pipe center into even larger Taylor bubbles or slugs. An adequate modeling has to consider all these phenomena. A Multi Bubble Size Class Test Solver has been developed to investigate these effects and test the influence of different model approaches. Basing on the results of these investigations a generalized inhomogeneous Multiple Size Group (MUSIG) Model based on the Eulerian modeling framework has been proposed and was finally implemented into the CFD code CFX. Within this model the dispersed gaseous phase is divided into N inhomogeneous velocity groups (phases) and each of these groups is subdivided into Mj bubble size classes. Bubble breakup and coalescence processes between all bubble size classes Mj are taken into account by appropriate models. The inhomogeneous MUSIG model has been validated against experimental data from the TOPFLOW test facility.

No description available.

This thesis describes the first application of ultra-fast magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) towards the characterisation of bubbly flow systems. The principle goal of this study is to provide a hydrodynamic characterisation of a model bubble column using drift-flux analysis by supplying experimental closure for those parameters which are considered difficult to measure by conventional means. The system studied consisted of a 31 mm diameter semi-batch bubble column, with 16.68 mM dysprosium chloride solution as the continuous phase. This dopant served the dual purpose of stabilising the system at higher voidages, and enabling the use of ultra-fast MRI by rendering the magnetic susceptibilities of the two phases equivalent. Spiral imaging was selected as the optimal MRI scan protocol for application to bubbly flow on the basis of its high temporal resolution, and robustness to fluid flow and shear. A velocimetric variant of this technique was developed, and demonstrated in application to unsteady, single-phase pipe flow up to a Reynolds number of 12,000. By employing a compressed sensing reconstruction, images were acquired at a rate of 188 fps. Images were then acquired of bubbly flow for the entire range of voidages for which bubbly flow was possible (up to 40.8%). Measurements of bubble size distribution and interfacial area were extracted from these data. Single component velocity fields were also acquired for the entire range of voidages examined. The terminal velocity of single bubbles in the present system was explored in detail with the goal of validating a bubble rise model for use in drift-flux analysis. In order to provide closure to the most sophisticated bubble rise models, a new experimental methodology for quantifying the 3D shape of rising single bubbles was described. When closed using shape information produced using this technique, the theory predicted bubble terminal velocities within 9% error for all bubble sizes examined. Drift-flux analysis was then used to provide a hydrodynamic model for the present system. Good predictions were produced for the voidage at all examined superficial gas velocities (within 5% error), however the transition of the system to slug flow was dramatically overpredicted. This is due to the stabilising influence of the paramagnetic dopant, and reflects that while drift-flux analysis is suitable for predicting liquid holdup in electrolyte stabilised systems, it does not provide an accurate representation of hydrodynamic stability. Finally, velocity encoded spiral imaging was applied to study the dynamics of single bubble wakes. Both freely rising bubbles and bubbles held static in a contraction were examined. Unstable transverse plane vortices were evident in the wake of the static bubble, which were seen to be coupled with both the path deviations and wake shedding of the bubble. These measurements demonstrate the great usefulness for spiral imaging in the study of transient multiphase flow phenomena.

Wet central heating systems account for a very large portion of energy consumption in the UK and recent figures indicate that its usage in households will be increasing even further. Under such circumstances, it is desirable to use these systems in the most efficient way possible. However, dissolved gases that penetrate into central heating systems are later released as bubbles due to local supersaturated conditions occurring on the primary heat exchanger wall of the boiler. This leads to a two-phase flow throughout the pipework, causing microbubbles to escape to the upper parts of the system and creating cold spots in the radiators, thus, reducing its efficiency. There is an increasing trend in building services to install devices that remove these unwanted gases. Therefore, investigation of two-phase structures throughout different pipe installations will facilitate companies in enhancing their deaerator designs. In this regard, extensive experimental and computational investigations of two-phase flow structures were conducted within this study. Two-phase flow structures were measured by a photographic technique and investigated in means of void fractions, bubble sizes, and velocities. Fluid velocities in the range of 0.5 to 1.1 m/s at typical wet central heating temperature (60 to 80 °C) and pressures (2.2 to 27 bar) were utilized. Results show that that bubble production increases as temperature, boiler heating load, and saturation ratio escalate. On the other hand, it reduces when the pressure and flow rate of the system gets higher. A clear relationship between bubble sizes and system parameters was non-existent, except for the system flow rate (where bubble diameters decrease as the flow rate increases). Moreover, bubbles were evenly distributed during vertical flow when compared to horizontal flow, where bubbles tend to flow at the upper parts of the pipe. Furthermore, it was shown that bubble distributions were highly affected by obstacles like the 90 degree bend, thermocouple or pressure sensors. In addition, it was observed that axial flow development of bubbly flow was a continuous process and void fraction at the upper part of the pipe increased as the flow travelled through horizontal pipeline. Regarding the bubble velocity measurements, it was concluded that, bubble velocity profiles show development along both vertical and horizontal flows and approach to profiles which can be expressed with the power-law. Moreover, coalescence of two bubbles during horizontal flow was captured, emphasizing that the effect of coalescences should not be neglected at low void fractions. It was also found that bubbly flow in central heating systems was in a coalescences dominant regime and maximum bubble diameter observed at most positions were higher than theoretically defined values. Moreover, bubble dissolution effect was not observed at any of the test rig conditions. The reasons were thought to be the variation saturation ratio and axial flow development of two-phase flow, which supress the effect of dissolution and favour coalescence phenomenon. Finally, after evaluating conclusions from the experimental results and computational study regarding the effect of the 90 degree bend on void fraction distributions, it was concluded that the employed physical model and solver settings in ANSYS Fluent 14.5, can be utilized to predict bubble distribution developments throughout the central heating systems’ pipework. Keywords: Central heating systems, two-phase flow, bubbly flow, bubble distributions, bubble sizes, bubble velocities, coalescence, image processing, experimental fluid easurements.

Many flow regimes in Nuclear Reactor Safety Research are characterized by multiphase flows, with one phase being a continuous liquid and the other phase consisting of gas or vapour of the liquid phase. In dependence on the void fraction of the gaseous phase the flow regimes e.g. in vertical pipes are varying from bubbly flows with low and higher volume fraction of bubbles to slug flow, churn turbulent flow, annular flow and finally to droplet flow. In the regime of bubbly and slug flow the multiphase flow shows a spectrum of different bubble sizes. While disperse bubbly flows with low gas volume fraction are mostly mono-disperse, an increase of the gas volume fraction leads to a broader bubble size distribution due to breakup and coalescence of bubbles. Bubbles of different sizes are subject to lateral migration due to forces acting in lateral direction different from the main drag force direction. The bubble lift force was found to change the sign dependent on the bubble size. Consequently this lateral migration leads to a de-mixing of small and large bubbles and to further coalescence of large bubbles migrating towards the pipe center into even larger Taylor bubbles or slugs. An adequate modeling has to consider all these phenomena. A Multi Bubble Size Class Test Solver has been developed to investigate these effects and test the influence of different model approaches. Basing on the results of these investigations a generalized inhomogeneous Multiple Size Group (MUSIG) Model based on the Eulerian modeling framework has been proposed and was finally implemented into the CFD code CFX. Within this model the dispersed gaseous phase is divided into N inhomogeneous velocity groups (phases) and each of these groups is subdivided into Mj bubble size classes. Bubble breakup and coalescence processes between all bubble size classes Mj are taken into account by appropriate models. The inhomogeneous MUSIG model has been validated against experimental data from the TOPFLOW test facility.

This thesis aims at contributing to the characterization of the dynamics of bubbles in microfluidics through modeling and experiments. Two flow regimes encountered in microfluidics are studied, namely, the bubbly flow regime and the Taylor flow regime (or slug flow).In particular, the first part of this thesis focuses on the dynamics of a bubbly flow inside a horizontal, cylindrical microchannel in the presence of surfactants using numerical simulations. A numerical method allowing to simulate the transport of surfactants along a moving and deforming interface and the Marangoni stresses created by an in-homogeneous distribution of these surfactants on this interface is implemented in the Level set module of the research code. The simulations performed with this code regarding the dynamics of a bubbly flow give insights into the complexity of the coupling of the different phenomena controlling the dynamics of the studied system. Fo example it shows that the confinement imposed by the microchannel walls results in a significantly different distribution of surfactants on the bubble surface, when compared to a bubble rising in a liquid of infinite extent. Indeed, surfactants accumulate on specific locations on the bubble surface, and create local Marangoni stresses, that drastically influence the dynamics of the bubble. In some cases, the presence of surfactants can even cause the bubble to burst, a mechanism that is rationalized through a normal stress balance at the back of the bubble. The numerical method implemented in this thesis is also used for a practical problem, regarding the artisanal production of Mezcal, an alcoholic beverage from Mexico.The second part of the thesis deals with the dynamics of a Taylor flow regime, through experiments and analytical modeling. An experimental technique that allows to measure the thickness of the lubrication film forming between a pancake-like bubble and the microchannel wall is developed. The method requires only a single instantaneous bright-field image of a pancake-like bubble translating inside a microchannel. In addition to measuring the thickness of the lubrication film, the method also allows to measure the depth of a microchannel. Using the proposed method together with the measurment of the bubble velocity allows to infer the surface tension of the interface between the liquid and the gaz. In the last chapter of this thesis, the effect of buoyancy on the dynamics of a Taylor flow is quantified. Though often neglected in microfluidics, it is shown that buoyancy effects can have a significant impact on the thickness of the lubrication film and consequently on the dynamics of the Taylor flow. These effects are quantified using experiments and analytical modeling. This work was performed at Princeton University with Professor Howard A. Stone during an eight month stay. / Doctorat en Sciences de l'ingénieur et technologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Bubbly flows around ships have been studied for years, mostly in relation with ship acoustic signatures. Bubbles are generated at the bow and shoulder breaking waves, at the hull/free surface contact line, the propeller and the highly turbulent stern flow. These bubbles are further transported downstream by the flow forming a two-phase mixture in the wake that can be kilometers long. The presence of bubbles in the wake of a ship significantly affects the acoustic response of the medium and can be detected by measuring acoustic attenuation and backscattering making a ship vulnerable to detection. Additionally, the bubbly wake shows at the surface as a characteristic signature of white water, and given the length of the bubbly wake, it makes a ship visible from satellites. Therefore, the bubbly wake can be used to detect and identify surface ships. Bubbly flows do not scale to model scale experiments, and experiments on full scale ships are scarce mostly due to difficult access areas and the high speeds involved. It is therefore of interest to simulate the bubbly flow around ships to provide information difficult, if not impossible, to obtain with experiments. This work presents the development of a code for the simulation of polydispersed bubbly flows with a focus on ship hydrodynamics. The mathematical model implemented is based on a two-fluid formulation coupled with a Boltzmann-like transport equation describing the bubbly phase. The tool developed attempts to include most of the relevant physics of the problem to represent better the conditions of real scenarios. The resulting code allows the simulation of polydispersed bubbly flows in situations including free surface and air entrainment, high void fraction levels and moving control surfaces and propulsors. The code is two-way coupled, with a strong coupling between the two phases and between the bubble sizes. The complexity of the problems tackled in this research required the development of novel numerical methods solving issues never identified before or simply neglected. These methods play an essential role in the accuracy, robustness and efficiency of the code and include: a two-phase projection method that not only couples pressure and velocity but also implicitly couples void fraction, a time splitting marching scheme to solve separately coupling in space and in bubble sizes, and a stable numerical method to integrate the strong coupling introduced by collision forces. The implemented code is applied to the simulation of the bubbly flow around a full scale ship using the latest available models and computational techniques. A study is performed on the influence of several mechanisms on the predicted bubbly wake and comparisons with available experimental data are presented. The influence of breakup in the boundary layer is analyzed in detail as well. In addition, this work identifies several modeling and implementations issues and attempts to provide a path for future studies. To illustrate the flexibility and robustness of the code, a final demonstration case is presented that includes rotating propellers. The computation is performed at full scale, with the fully appended geometry of the vessel and includes incoming waves, oceanic background and rectified diffusion models. Many of these features are unique to this computation and make it the first of its kind.

To simulate dispersed two-phase flows CFD tools for predicting the local particle number density and the size distribution are required. These quantities do not only have a significant effect on rates of mixing, heterogeneous chemical reaction rates or interfacial heat and mass transfers, but also a direct relevance to the hydrodynamics of the total system, such as the flow pattern and flow regime. The Multiple Size Group (MUSIG) model available in the commercial codes CFX-4 and CFX-5 was developed for this purpose. Mathematically, this model is based on the population balance method and the two-fluid modeling approach. The dispersed phase is divided into N size classes. In order to reduce the computational cost, all size groups are assumed to share the same velocity field. This model allows to use a sufficient number of particle size groups required for the coalescence and breakup calculation. Nevertheless, the assumption also restricts its applicability to homogeneous dispersed flows. We refer to the CFX MUSIG model mentioned above as the homogeneous model, which fails to predict the correct phase distribution when heterogeneous particle motion becomes important. In many flows the non-drag forces play an essential role with respect to the bubble motion. Especially, the lift force acting on large deformed bubbles, which is dominated by the asymmetrical wake, has a direction opposite to the shear induced lift force on a small bubble. This bubble separation cannot be predicted by the homogeneous MUSIG model. In order to overcome this shortcoming we developed an efficient inhomogeneous MUSIG model in cooperation with ANSYS CFX. A novel multiple velocity multiple size group model, which incorporates the population balance equation into the multi-fluid modeling framework, was proposed. The validation of this new model is discussed in this report.