Sciences de la matière et microgravité

J. Phys. IV France 11 (2001) Pr6-91-Pr6-98
DOI: 10.1051/jp4:2001611

2D unsteady motion and deformation of a gaseous bubble in a vibrating liquid at zero gravity

D.V. Lyubimov¹, T.P. Lyubimova², S. Meradji³, B. Roux³, D. Beysens³, Y. Garrabos⁴ and D. Chatain<sup>5

1</sup>  Perm State University, 15 Bukireva Str., 614600 Perm, Russia
²  Institute of Continuous Media Mechanics RAS, 1 Korolyova Str., 614013 Perm, Russia
³  Laboratoire de Modélisation et Simulation Numérique en Mécanique (L3M), FRE-2405, IMT La Jetée, Technopôle de Château-Gombert, 13451 Marseille cedex 20, France
⁴  Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux, CEA-ESEME, ICMCB, 33608 Pessac cedex, France
⁵  DRMC, CEA-Grenoble, 17 rue des Martyrs, 36054 Grenoble cedex 09, France

Abstract
Numerical investigation of a bubble immersed in a liquid of different density in a container subject to translational oscillations in weightlessness conditions shows the following scenario where the bubble, initially located at the container center, starts to move to the container wall due to an attraction mechanism having nonviscous origin. This motion is accompanied by small-amplitude oscillations with the frequency equal to the forcing frequency and by eigen-oscillations with long period excited by the initial acceleration. These eigen-oscillations are gradually damped. Simultaneously, the deformation of the bubble shape averaged over the external forcing period occurs. The bubble is flattened in the direction of vibration axis. An interesting result is the deceleration of the bubble motion when it approaches the wall and stops without touching the wall, such that a final state is reached where the bubble centroid remains nearly quiescent (performing small oscillations around this final mean position). Numerical results on the eccentricity of the inclusion average-shape obtained under assumption that the inclusion cross-section is an ellipse are compared with the results of analytical investigation for the case of a cylindrical container of large radius. Good agreement is found for a small-size inclusion.

© EDP Sciences 2001