Studies of Bubbly Channel Flows by Direct Numerical Simulations

Recent DNS studies of buoyant bubbly flows in vertical channels are discussed. Simulations of nearly spherical bubbly flows in vertical channels show that the bubbles move towards the walls for upflow and away from the walls for downflow in such a way that the core is in hydrostatic equilibrium. For downflow the wall-layer is free of bubbles but for upflow there is an excess of bubbles in the wall-layer. The liquid velocity in the core is nearly uniform. For laminar downflow the velocity in the wall-layer can be computed analytically and for turbulent flow the velocity is given (almost) by the law of the wall. For upflow the velocity in the wall-layer is strongly influenced by the presence of the bubbles. We conclude by discussing briefly bubble coalescence and topology induced flow regime changes.