Passage of a bubble through the interface between a shear-thinning heavier liquid and a Newtonian lighter liquid

Abstract

Numerical simulations are carried out to study the phenomenon of passage of a bubble through the interface between two initially quiescent liquids. The heavier liquid is a viscous shear-thinning liquid whereas the lighter liquid is a viscous Newtonian liquid. The computational model, which is based on axisymmetric computational domain and VOF (volume of fluid) method, is validated by using the data reported in literature. The validated computational model is then used to perform parametric analysis to understand the effects of bubble diameter, interfacial tension between the two liquids and flow index of the heavier liquid on the drainage time, drainage height, retention time and retention height of the bubble at the liquid–liquid interface. Finally, correlations for retention time and retention height are proposed.

Keywords:

• Bubble
• CFD
• interface
• Liquid–liquid
• Shear-thinning
• VOF

Acknowledgements

Support provided by Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to KKS for his research stay as a postdoctoral researcher at TU Kaiserslautern is gratefully acknowledged.