Diffusion-Driven Bubble Cloud Growth in Microgravity Conditions (DDBCGmG)

research area: fluid dynamics

experiment title:

Diffusion-Driven Bubble Cloud Growth in Microgravity Conditions

experiment acronym: DDBCGmG

funding agency: ESA

grant number: CORA - Program

performing organization:

Department of Thermal and Fluids Engineering, Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain

prime investigator:

Dr. Javier Rodríguez Rodríguez

experiment objective

abstract

The purpose of this research is to investigate the growth of a bubble cloud produced upon the collapse of a cavitation bubble in carbonated liquids. Our previous investigations report that the diameter of the cloud, L, initially grows as L prop. t^1/2 consistently with the behavior expected for an isolated bubble immersed in a supersaturated solution. When the cloud is dense enough, this regime lasts only for about 10 ms since, after some time, the growth of the bubble cloud slows down, presumably due to the depletion of CO2 around and inside the cloud. Unfortunately, the investigation of this second regime --although highly relevant from an industrial and fundamental perspective-- is difficult, as buoyancy (i.e. gravity), quickly takes over thus transforming the nearly spherical foam cloud into a plume.

A better understanding of the formation of foam in reduced gravity conditions is highly relevant for many manufacturing processes, including those occurring in microgravity, as well as to understand a variety of geological phenomena. Thus, we propose to use an experimental facility consisting in an improved version of the DWS setup with the aim at taking quantitative data to validate future models of the diffusion-driven growth of dense bubble cloud.

related publications

  • Vega-Martínez P,  Rodríguez-Rodríguez J, van der Meer D. and Sperl M. Drop tower setup to study the diffusion-driven growth of a foam ball in supersaturated liquids in microgravity condition. Microgravity science and Technology. doi:10.1007/s12217-017-9547-8 (2017)
  • Enríquez OR, Sun C, Lohse D, Prosperetti A and van der Meer D. The quasi- static growth of CO2 bubbles. J. Fluid Mech. 741, R1 (2014)
  • Rodríguez-Rodríguez J, Casado-Chacón A and Fuster D. Physics of beer tapping. Phys. Rev. Lett. 113, 214501 (2014)
  • Epstein PS and Plesset MS. Stability of gas bubbles in liquid-gas solutions. J. Chem. Phys. 18, 1505-1509 (1950)
  • Scriven LE. On the dynamic of phase growth. Chem. Eng. Sci. 10, 1-13 (1959)

experiment campaigns

experiment year: 2018
number of drops: 8

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