Experimental investigation of the hydrodynamics of confined bubble plumes in water and viscous media

Wire-mesh tomography measurements of void fraction and bubble size distribution in a rectangular bubble column 10 cm wide and 2 cm in depth have been conducted. Experiments were performed in an air-water and ethylene glycol system with the column operating in the dispersed bubbly flow regime. Experiments were performed for plumes with different aspect ratios (ratio of the height of the stationary liquid column to the width of the test section) between 2.2 to 13. The behaviour of the long plumes (larger aspect ratio) was found to be significantly different than that of the short plumes (aspect ratios 2 to 4). The oscillating nature of the bubble plume is preserved over the entire height of the water column for the short plumes. The longer plumes are characterized by two distinct regions, the near injector oscillating region and a further downstream region where the flow attains a ‘fully developed’ condition and the bubbles rise in a string like motion spread throughout the cross-section of the bubble column. The void fraction distribution in the oscillating region of the long plume exhibits a center-peak profile. A ‘wall peak’ has been observed in the measured void fraction profiles (for higher gas flow rates) in the downstream fully developed region of the long plume. The effect of column height and superficial gas velocity on the void distribution has been investigated. This paper presents the measurement principle and the experimental results for short and long plumes in an air-water system and for short plumes rising in viscous media. The results of the visualization experiment characterizing the structure of the bubble plume and the oscillation frequency of the bubble plumes are reported. Bubble velocities in the non-oscillating region of the long plume have been calculated using digital image processing of high-speed camera images.