Flow regime and shear entrainment in bubble plumes

Bubble plumes involve the movement of bubbles in water and play a key role in many natural and engineered systems. However, the way bubbles interact with water and how this affects the plume’s behavior and turbulence is not fully understood. This project seeks to understand how the flow patterns of bubble plumes change as they move further from their source and under different conditions.

The project also aims to improve our understanding of how bubbles create turbulence and how that turbulence impacts the overall flow. The findings could help improve computer models used to simulate bubble plumes in both natural environments and engineering applications. The STEM education and outreach programs including engineer’s week, summer STEM camp, and high school student internship will benefit many K-12 students with different levels of involvement in research.

The goal of this project is to develop a comprehensive understanding of flow regimes in bubble plumes and their relationship to turbulent structures in the multiphase flow systems. Specifically, this project will establish the evolving entrainment process in bubble plumes and use this knowledge to create a universal integral model that applies to a wide range of bubble and source flow conditions.

The project will include dedicated laboratory experiments to measure bubble dynamics and water flows, along with in-depth analysis of flow evolution and small-scale turbulence. Additionally, this project will create an open-source database of flow characteristics for the fluid dynamics community by synthesizing existing literature data and new experimental results collected in this study.

The insights gained from this project will advance the understanding of multiphase flow dynamics and benefit fields such as natural resource management, earth sciences, industrial processes, and engineering design.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.