The interaction between bubbles and turbulence is a crucial aspect of many natural phenomena and industrial processes.
When a dispersed phase of bubbles is present in a turbulent flow, different phenomena occur simultaneously, from bubbles-modulated gas transfer and turbulent mixing to bubbles breakup and coalescence. These systems are thus characterized by a high complexity, which is rather difficult to model and properly describe.
This project wants to investigate the bubbles-turbulence interaction and the roles of turbulent mixing and diffusivity on the transfer of a dilute gas.
These phenomena will be observed by performing a series of numerical simulations in a channel flow configuration. The simulations will adopt an innovative approach based on direct numerical simulations of turbulence, coupled with a phase-field method to describe the interfacial phenomena, including also a passive scalar equation representing the gas concentration behavior. High-resolution grids and thus high-performance computing infrastructures are required to simulate these types of flow.
The outcomes of the simulations will be used to develop sub-models, which will significantly help the optimization and improvement of several industrial applications, as well as enhance the general understanding and prediction of environmental problems.
Country and Research Team Institutions
TU Wien, Austria.