Bubble Motion near a Wall Under Microgravity: Existence of Attractive and Repulsive Forces

• DOI: 10.1007/s12217-010-9238-1
• Publication Date: 2010-10-04T18:48:38Z
• Authors: Ruquan Liang; Dong Liang; Fusheng Yan; Zhangqing Liao; Guangdong Duan
• Keywords: 0103 physical sciences; 01 natural sciences

A numerical simulation for a bubble motion near a wall under microgravity, relevant to material processing such as crystal growth in space, is presented based on a mass conservation level set algorithm to predict the bubble behavior affected by the near wall. The simulation for the wall effect on the bubble driven by an external acceleration parallel with the near wall referred to as g-jitter confirms for the first time the existence of the wall attractive force to the bubble near the wall under certain conditions such as the initial distance between the bubble and the wall, density and viscosity ratios between the bubble and surrounding liquid under microgravity. The wall effect mechanism is explained, and the results show that the wall attractive force increases with the increasing of density ratio. Moreover, the simulation for the wall repulsive effect on the bubble near the wall under microgravity has been carried out as well.