A new measuring concept to determine the lift force for distorted bubbles in low Morton number system: Results for air/water

The lift force, which strongly influences the spatial bubble distribution, is one of the most important non-drag forces. However, measurements in systems with a low Morton number are limited. In the present work, a time-averaging measurement method with which this gap can be closed is discussed. The experimental setup is kept as simple as possible, avoiding any moving parts.
The single bubble movement through a linear shear field was observed three-dimensional over 75 minutes. In total, 85 measurement points cover 13 bubble sizes at 7 different shear rates. The results reveal that former empirical correlations obtained from experiments and simulations in predominantly high Morton number systems are applicable. In this context, the characteristic length scale that is used to describe the lift force needs to be carefully defined.
From the present results, the major axis seems to be the most reasonable choice for wobbling bubbles. However, the major axis might be dependent on the flow properties, which leads to a flow dependent lift force formulation.