The interaction between bubbles and turbulence is a crucial aspect of many natural phenomena and industrial processes.
When a dispersed phase of bubbles is present in a turbulent flow, different phenomena occur simultaneously, from bubbles-modulated gas transfer and turbulent mixing to bubbles breakup and coalescence. These systems are thus characterized by a high complexity, which is rather difficult to model and properly describe.
This project wants to investigate the bubbles-turbulence interaction and the roles of turbulent mixing and diffusivity on the transfer of a dilute gas.
These phenomena will be observed by performing a series of numerical simulations in a channel flow configuration. The simulations will adopt an innovative approach based on direct numerical simulations of turbulence, coupled with a phase-field method to describe the interfacial phenomena, including also a passive scalar equation representing the gas concentration behavior. High-resolution grids and thus high-performance computing infrastructures are required to simulate these types of flow.
The outcomes of the simulations will be used to develop sub-models, which will significantly help the optimization and improvement of several industrial applications, as well as enhance the general understanding and prediction of environmental problems.
TU Wien, Austria.