Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Happenings
  • Events
  • The phenomenon of a bubble rising under the influence of electric field
The phenomenon of a bubble rising under the influence of electric field

The phenomenon of a bubble rising under the influence of electric field

Date18th Mar 2024

Time03:00 PM

Venue Online meeting link: https://meet.google.com/ier-bxut-mks

PAST EVENT

Details

The bubble-rising phenomenon is crucial in diverse industries such as petroleum, pharmaceuticals, polymers, chemical processing, and wastewater treatment. Manipulating bubble behavior, notably through externally applied electric fields, holds significant promise for various applications. The present study focuses on establishing a foundational understanding of bubble rising under the influence of an electric field. To conduct simulations, we developed an in-house electrohydrodynamic solver integrated with interFoam, an open-source finite volume method (FVM) within the OpenFOAM framework. The solver is meticulously validated against the literature and found to be robust in calculating electrical force and capturing interface in the presence of the electric field. In the absence of an electric field, a small spherical bubble exhibits various shapes, including ellipsoidal, ellipsoidal cap, bi-oblate, dimpled ellipsoidal, or retains its original spherical form. The study is divided into two main parts: examining the effect of an electric field on a bubble rising while maintaining a spherical shape and exploring the impact of an electric field on the ascent of non-spherical steady-state bubbles. In the first part, with fixed hydrodynamic parameters, we investigated the influence of electrical parameters such as conductivity ratio(R), permittivity ratio(S), and electric capillary number (CaE). The electrical force, comprising dielectrophoretic force and Coulomb force, increases with higher values of CaE, R, and S. The ascent of bubbles leads to various phenomena, including wall-attached bubbles, path instability, and breakup, influenced by the strength and direction of vortices induced by electrical force. The strength and direction of the vortices depend upon the property ratios R and S. In the second part, while keeping electrical property ratios constant, we varied hydrodynamic parameters to attain various bubble shapes. The study revealed that higher CaE values induce wobbling in different steady-state bubble shapes. The CaE minimally affects the rising velocity but significantly influences deformation for specific shapes - ellipsoidal and ellipsoidal cap. The overall impact of Bond number (Bo) and Reynolds number (Re) on bubble dynamics in the presence of an electric field mirrors their effects in its absence, except for wobbling, which is observed at lower Bo and Re values.

Speakers

Mr. Darshan Pravinbhai Patel (AM18D003)

Dept. of Applied Mechanics and Biomedical Engineering