Air-bubble entrainment by translating turbulent jets in stagnant water

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study on air-bubble entrainment in quiescent water by translating circular turbulent jets. The jet diameters, plunging heights, impact velocities, and translating velocities were varied during the experiments to investigate their relative effect on the bubble characteristics. The experimental observations reveal that the jet translation affects the air bubble entrainment mechanism and the distribution of bubble size. A rotating cavity forms around the plunging jet due to the translation of the jet. Depending on the translating velocity, the air bubble emanates from the cusp of the cavity and the downstream water surface meniscus with the jet. The bubble swarm produced by the translating jet exhibits vortex shedding with Strouhal numbers between 0.22 and 0.27, comparable to a circular cylinder in cross-flow. The peak of the bubble size distribution varies between 0.5 and 1.5 mm, while the Sauter mean diameter varies between 1.8 and 2.8 mm. The maximum penetration depth of bubbles is found to be a function of the jet impact to translating velocity ratio, and the Capillary number of the air–water interface. The spatial distribution of bubbles along the plume cross section exhibits Gaussian distributions. Finally, the terminal rising velocity of the bubbles shows no obvious effect of the jet translation.