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Bubble interaction in low-viscosity liquids. (English) Zbl 1135.76553
Summary: An experimental study investigated how freely rising ellipsoidal bubbles approach each other, make contact and coalesce or breakup. Pulsed planar swarms of 10-20 bubbles with Eötvös numbers from 6.0 to 27.5 were released simultaneously in aqueous solutions of 0-48 wt% sugar with Morton numbers from $$3.2 \times 10^{-11}$$ to $$3.7 \times 10^{-6}$$. Bubble interaction was recorded by a video camera following the rising bubbles. Essentially, all coalescence and breakup events occurred after, not during, wake-induced collisions by a complex process related to the bubble vortex shedding cycle. This same process was also found in multi-bubble clusters and may account for excess turbulent kinetic energy generation in bubbly flow.

##### MSC:
 76Txx Multiphase and multicomponent flows
##### Keywords:
bubbles; coalescence; breakup; bubble swarms; turbulence; bubbly flow
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