Experimental Study of the Effect of the Swirl Flow on the Characteristics of Microbubble Generator Orifice Type

Microbubble generator is a device that produces micro-sized bubbles that are useful to increase the dissolved oxygen in the water. This present work investigates the effect of the swirl flow created by the cyclone of a 12 mm orifice type microbubble generator using a 300 mm stainless steel wire mesh porous tube. To review the performance of the microbubble generator, three parameters were considered. Those are the hydraulic power (Lw), pressure drop, and bubble diameter distribution. The hydraulic power and pressure drop values were acquired by using the pressure sensor of Validyne P55D, while the bubble diameter distribution was obtained using a high-speed camera. The results indicate that the bubble diameters appear with the highest probability in the diameter range of 300 - 450 mu m. The increase of water and airflow rates cause the rise of the hydraulic power and pressure drop.