Chemical Engineering Science, Vol.54, No.13-14, 2247-2254, 1999
Bubbles in non-Newtonian fluids: Formation, interactions and coalescence
The present work aims at studying the behaviors of air bubbles in non-Newtonian fluids from formation to coalescence. The experimental data reveal that the bubble rise velocity depended upon the injection period and that coalescence took place for short injection periods. The rheological simulation and birefringence visualization prove for the first time that in-line interactions are governed by a dynamical competition between the creation and relaxation of stresses in fluids. The chaos analysis was applied to time series data of bubble passage recorded at different heights in the bubble column. The calculation of several parameters: the largest Lyapunov exponent, the correlation dimension, the power spectrum, and the phase portraits, corroborates the deterministic chaotic mechanism of the coalescence between bubbles. A new theoretical model was developed for describing the non-spherical bubble formation at an orifice. Owing to the knowledge of the interactions, the present model is able to calculate the instantaneous shape of the bubble during its formation and determine the final size of detachment as well as the frequency of bubble formation. The theoretical results compare very satisfactorily with the experimental investigation.