International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 169 (2021) 120916

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International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/hmt

Assessment of VoF based numerical scheme for bubble rise in

isothermal liquid layer, and some new insight in thermally stratified
liquid layers
Shashwat Sharad Agarwal, Kunal Kumar, Laltu Chandra∗, Pradyumna Ghosh
Department of Mechanical Engineering, IIT (BHU) Varanasi, 221005, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: This paper aims at (a) comparative assessment of the different volume of fluid (VoF) based numerical
Received 16 October 2020 schemes for a rising, single air bubble in isothermal liquid (water) layers and (b) investigation of bub-
Revised 18 December 2020
ble rise in thermally stratified liquid (therminol) layers. For numerical investigation of bubble rise in
Accepted 2 January 2021
isothermal liquid layers, three available numerical schemes, Upwind, Quadratic Upstream Interpolation for
Available online 3 February 2021
Convective Kinematics (QUICK) and Monotonic Upwind Scheme for Conservation Laws (MUSCL) schemes,
Keywords: combined with the pressure-velocity coupling(p-v) approaches, such as, Pressure Implicit with Splitting of
Bubble Dynamics Operators (PISO) and Semi Implicit Method for Pressure-Linked Equations (SIMPLE), are considered. The
Path Instability wake analysis revealed that the region of influence grows beyond 10 times the diameter of the bubble.
Shape Instability Moreover, based on the comparative assessment, MUSCL scheme with PISO is selected, for investigating
Micro-convection the bubble rise in thermally stratified therminol layers. Based on these investigations, a 3D diagram, de-
Heat Transfer
scribing bubble shape as f (Ra, Eo, Ga), is proposed, and a new insight to the micro-convection, inside the
CFD
rising bubbles is provided. Furthermore, a time-scale analysis is performed to describe the heat transfer
mechanisms, (a) inside air bubble, and (b) between air bubble and the external surrounding liquid. Thus,
the findings will be useful for the design of heat exchangers or cooling devices, which rely on the heat
transfer augmentation with rising air bubble.
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Despite an apparent simplicity the computation of terminal ve-

Bubble induced heat transfer is of practical relevance to cool-
ing problems ranging from electronic to nuclear systems. In partic-
ular, the enhancement of heat removal rate from nuclear reactor
core, by a quasi-passive mechanism, will ensure a greater safety
[Končar et al., [1]]. The boiling phenomenon is being progressively
used for the cooling of large-scale servers for their sustained per-
formance [Kim et al, [2]]. In particular, the nucleate boiling regime
is of importance, for enhancing the heat transfer coefficient, and
for inhibiting the formation of thin-film on the heated surface [El-
ghanam et al., [3]]. The rise of bubbles, from a heated surface, aug-
ments the heat transfer rate, in addition to natural convection in a
quiescent liquid [Zun et al., [4]]. However, a delay in departure of
the bubble may be detrimental. Hence, the detailed investigations
of bubble generation and its departure from a surface, along with
the involved dynamics, is necessary for improving the desired heat
removal process from a surface/system.
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: chandra.mec@iitbhu.ac.in (L. Chandra).
locity for a rising bubble, if exists, in quiescent liquid layers, of-
fers notable difficulty [Celata et al., [5]]. The shape and terminal
velocity of isolated bubbles vary as equivalent diameter increases,
according to three regimes: 1) viscosity dominant, 2) inertia dom-
inant, 3) intermediate regime [Tomiyama et al., [6]]. Therefore, the
problem is pertinent, and remains a challenging test case for the
assessment of numerical methods, for computing the bubble dy-
namics and the underpinning [Tripathi et al., [7]]. Therefore, bub-
ble rise in isothermal, quiescent liquid layers serves as the base
case. The findings will be useful in extending the analysis to ther-
mally stratified liquid layers, as envisaged.
Investigations have revealed some flow features, including vor-
tex shedding behind a rising gas bubble, which is likely to affect
the transport of subsequent trailing bubbles [Gumulya et al., [8]].
The kinematics of a single bubble, rising in quiescent liquid, is use-
ful to understand and describe gas-liquid interface in the bubble
affected fluid flow [Baz-Rodriguez et al., [9]]. In the case of a chain
of bubbles, rising in quiescent liquid layers, their distinctly differ-
ent rising velocities are approximated by the superposition princi-
ple, considering the effect of wake behind a leading or the chain
of bubbles [Marks, [10]]. The slip velocity between phases can be

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijheatmasstransfer.2021.120916
0017-9310/© 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
S.S. Agarwal, K. Kumar, L. Chandra et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 169 (2021) 120916

wake structure by axis-symmetric bluff bodies and bubbles. Marks

Nomenclature et. al. [10] investigated the effect of wake on the rise velocity of
trailing bubbles.
α Thermal diffusivity (m2 / s) In thermally stratified fluid layers, bubbles tend to move to-
c Volume fraction of fluid wards the heated region for minimizing the energy. This phe-
d Diameter of bubble (m) nomenon is known as thermo-capillarity. Therefore, understand-
E Aspect ratio (minor diameter/major diame- ing the effect of thermal stratification, on the rising velocity of a
ter) bubble, is crucial for pool boiling. The collapse time of condens-
Eo = ρσgd
2
Eötvös number ing vapor bubbles reduces with the increasing temperature dif-
8 2 ference [Bahreini et al., [15]]. In fluid layers with base heating,
gd 3 ρρ 3
F= 1 1 Flow number smaller bubbles move downward due to the induced Marangoni
μ3 σ 3
V stresses, whereas bigger bubbles move upward as buoyancy over-
F r = √T Froude number
gd comes the thermo-capillarity [Young et al., [16]]. Experimental
f Frequency of vortex shedding (Hz) studies reported change of velocity and shape for rising gas bub-
3
Ga = gυd2 Galilei number bles in preheated, thermally stratified, liquid layers [Duangsuwan
et al., [17]]. Computational studies reported the decrease in veloc-
Gr = gβ  T d3
υ2
Grashoff number
ity of rising vapor bubbles with the increase in superheat [Samkha-
g Gravitational acceleration (m / s2 ) niani et al., [18]]. For high Marangoni numbers (Ma = O (102 )) and
k Interface curvature low Reynolds number (Re = O(1)), the bubble velocity was found
Ma = − ddTσ dμα
T Marangoni number to depend on Ma only [Balasubramaniam et al., [19]]. The non-
nˆ Normal unit vector dimensional bubble velocity was found to decrease for zero grav-
Q Energy (J) ity, Ma = O (102 to 104 ) and ReT = O (10-102 ) [Alhendal et al., [20]].
Ra = gβ υα
T d3
Rayleigh number Thus, some insight to the rise of gas bubbles in pre-heated or con-
pud
Re = μ Reynolds number tinually heated, thermally stratified liquid layers, have been re-
pVT d ported. Bubble induced mixing is of prime importance for heat
ReT = μ Reynolds number corresponding to terminal
transfer augmentation. This influences the migration of bubbles de-
velocity pending on the surrounding temperature distribution. The forced
Gr
Ri = Re2
Richardson number convection near the surface of vapor bubbles affects its growth rate
fd
St = VT Strouhal number and size [Genske et al., [21]]. The path of rising bubbles near a
Sc Current cell size heated vertical surface, influences the rate of heat transfer [Don-
Sd Downstream cell size nelly et al., [22]]. For instance, a heat transfer enhancement, up to
Su Upstream cell size 6 times, was observed at an inclined plate due to the sliding bub-
T Temperature (K) bles [Meehan et al., [23]].
Tcentroid Temperature of bubble centroid (K) However, there are some research-gaps, such as, (a) represen-
Tsur f ace Temperature of bubble surface (K) tation of bubble shape on the non-dimensional parameters includ-
Tbul k f l uid Temperature of bulk fluid(K) ing the effect of heat transfer, (b) the heat transfer within a rising
2
ud 3 ρ 3
2 bubble, and between air (in bubble) with its surrounding liquid,
V = 1 1 Velocity number (c) flow regime inside bubble and in the surrounding liquid lay-
μ3 σ 3
VT Terminal velocity (m / s) ers, and (d) identifying time-scale that dominates the heat transfer
β Volumetric thermal expansion coefficient process. To address these aspects, the paper investigates the effect
(K−1 ) of thermal stratification on the rise of an air bubble for a moderate
∇ Gradient operator Re = O (102 ). Consequently, the following objectives are framed:
μg Absolute viscosity of gas phase (kg / m - s) a) A comparative assessment and selection of the volume of fluid
μl Absolute viscosity of liquid phase (kg / m - (VoF) based numerical scheme using the rise of a single bub-
s) ble in isothermal fluid layers. This allows selecting a numerical
υ Kinematic viscosity (m2 / s) model for further analysis.
ρg Density of gas phase (kg / m3 ) b) The analysis of rising bubble in thermally stratified fluid (ther-
ρl Density of liquid phase (kg / m3 ) minol) layers, using the selected VoF-based numerical ap-
σ Surface tension (N / m) proach. A 3D diagram is proposed to describe the shape of bub-
ϕ Cell-centred variable ble depending on Eötvös number (Eo), Galilei number (Ga) and
δ Dirac delta Rayleigh number (Ra).
c) An insight to the phenomenon of micro-convection, within a
rising air bubble in thermally stratified fluid layers, and time-
expressed in terms of single bubble terminal velocity and gas vol-
scales for air inside bubble and liquid outside the bubble are
ume fraction [Shah et al., [11]]. However, a single rising bubble
provided to investigate the heat transfer.
may never display a steady terminal velocity due to breaking up
of bubble while traversing [Tripathi et al., [7]]. The paper is organized as follows: (a) section 2 introduces the
The vortex shedding behind a bubble influences the path, problem, (b) section 3 deals with mathematical and numerical
shape and velocity of trailing and satellite bubbles, see e.g. Lunde framework problems, (c) section 4 and (d) section 5 deals with re-
et al., [12]. They showed the presence of hairpin-like flow struc- sults and discussion, followed by conclusions.
ture, for rising bubbles in a zigzag path, and found similarity to
the flow around an axis-symmetric bluff body. Fan et al. [13] shows 2. Problem Description
the presence of horse-shoe shaped vortices for zigzagging bubbles.
They reported a similarity between wakes shed by a solid body and The two-dimensional schematic of the problem dealing with
a bubble. Nakamura [14] worked on the spiralling bubbles for 210 the rise of a single bubble in quiescent fluid is depicted in
<Re< 270 adding further evidence for the close relation between Figure 1(a). For assessment of numerical schemes, water has been

2
S.S. Agarwal, K. Kumar, L. Chandra et al. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 169 (2021) 120916

Figure 1. (a) A two-dimensional schematic of the problem (b) the generated initial temperature distribution and speed of therminol along the centreline, analysis with
thermal stratification.

selected for isothermal fluid layers, and for thermally stratified following transport equation for the volume fraction of fluid is re-
fluid layers, therminol has been selected in view of its low heat quired:
conductivity (≈ 16 of water). The selection of therminol is motivated
∂c
by two facts, (a) this transparent liquid will permit the foreseen + ( ∇ .u
 )c = 0 (3)
experimental investigations of bubble dynamics and (b) it provides ∂t
a time-span, of a few seconds, for measurement. For isothermal where,
and thermally stratified fluid layers, an air bubble of 8 mm di- 
0 in liquid
ameter is introduced, in an enclosed fluid column of height 2 m
c= ∈ (0, 1 )at the inter f ace
and width 0.1 m. The boundaries are treated as impermeable and
1 in air
thus no-slip condition is applied. For thermally stratified fluid lay-
ers, a temperature profile is obtained from preliminary calculation, The densityρ (x, t ) and viscosity μ(x, t )are obtained by the
by using uniform heat flux of 2 kW / m2 on the side walls. The weighted averages of liquid and vapour phases as follows:
selection of heat flux is motivated from the available heating sys-
tem in the laboratory. A two-step approach is adopted to create ρ (x, t ) = c(x, t )ρg + [1 − c(x, t )]ρl (4)
a practical thermally stratified fluid layers, (i) first, the tempera-
ture in fluid layers is computed and (ii) second, the fluid layer is
μ(x, t ) = c(x, t )μg + [1 − c(x, t )]μl
allowed to stabilize, such that the velocity reaches practically to
zero or fluid layer settles. The obtained fluid temperature and av-
erage speed, along the height, is shown in Figure 1(b). This pro- 3.2. Bubble Rise in Thermally Stratified Liquid Layers
file is used as the initial condition for the thermally stratified fluid
layers. The temperature-dependent fluid properties are chosen for In addition to the above, for thermally-stratified liquid layers,
simulation, except for the surface tension. the following energy equation is solved:
∂ (ρ Q )  
+ ∇ . (u
 ( ρ Q + p ) ) = ∇ ke f f ∇ T (5)
3. Governing Equations ∂t
2
The bubble is assumed to be initially stationary. In this analysis, where, Q = h − ρp + v2 . The fluid properties are taken as piecewise-
the two-dimensional Cartesian coordinate system (x, y) is adopted linear temperature dependent for both therminol and air.
depicting the rectangular domain. The gravitational acceleration
acts along the negative y direction and the liquid is treated as in- 4. Computational Approach
compressible at STP.
A volume of fluid (VoF) solver, for multiphase modelling, has
3.1. Bubble Rise in Isothermal Liquid Layers been used to trace the volume fraction of air and also capture
the interface boundary. The interface tracking in VoF method is
The following, dimensional, governing equations are generally based on the solution of continuity equation for the liquid and gas
solved for simulating the rise of a single bubble in quiescent liquid phases. For the flow of liquid (p) and gas (q) phases, the transport
layers [Chakraborty et. al., [24], Ma et al., [25]]. equation, for example, the q phase is,
The continuity equation is given by,  
1 ∂ ( c ρq )
Dρ (x, t ) + ∇ .(cρqvq ) = m˙ pq − m˙ qp (6)
=0 (1) ρq ∂t
Dt
The equation for conservation of momentum is given by, where,
 
∂ρ (x, t )u    m˙ pq = mass transfer from phase p to phase q
+ ∇ .(ρ (x, t )u  = −∇ P + ∇ μ(x, t ) ∇ u
 )u  + ∇u
 T + F (2)
∂t m˙ qp = mass transfer from phase q to phase p

where, F = σ δ nˆ − ρ (x, t )g jˆ is the net force due to surface tension Volume fraction is selected to explicit formulation with sharp
force near the interface and the gravitational force. In addition, the interface modelling type to capture shape deformation of bubble

3
S.S. Agarwal, K. Kumar, L. Chandra et al.
more accurately. The explicit formulation has been used and it is
given by,
cnf +1 ρqn+1 − cnf ρqn  
V+ ρ n n
qU f c f = [m˙ pq − m˙ qp ]V
t
f
where, n + 1 = index for new (current) time step, n = index of pre-
vious time step, c f = face value of the volume fraction of gas,
V = volume of cell, U f = volume flux through the face based on nor-
mal velocity. The interface modelling is done using the geometrical
reconstruction-based scheme. This scheme represents the interface
using piecewise-linear approach that is applicable in both struc-
tured and unstructured meshes. For the non-isothermal case, the
VoF model treats energy Q, and temperature T, as mass-averaged
variables:
n gle air bubble, with diameters ranging from 3 to 40 mm, rising
q=1 cq ρq Q q
Q =
n (8)
q=1 cq ρq
where, Qq for each phase is based on the specific heat of that
phase and the shared temperature. All the simulations have been
carried out in ANSYS FLUENT version 15.0. The entire domain
(X, Y ) is divided into coarse (100 × 20 0 0) and refined (20 0 × 40 0 0)
elements with the average mesh size of 1 and 0.5 mm, respec-
tively. Due to non-uniform meshing the diameter of the bubble is
divided into 16 and 33 cells [Gumulya et al., [26]]. The time step
is chosen to be 0.5 ms and maximum local Courant based stability
criteria is chosen to be 0.25. However, due to grid non-uniformity
the highest value is found to be 0.84. Simulations were performed
with the absolute convergence criterion of 10−6 , and the number
of iterations, within each time step, is chosen to be 40 for ensur-
ing the same. The adopted numerical scheme includes second or-
der Upwind, QUICK and third order MUSCL with different types
of pressure-velocity (p-v) coupling approaches SIMPLE, and PISO.
These are summarized in Table 1. It may be noted that the Upwind
scheme involves unidirectional transport of information, whereas,
the QUICK and the MUSCL involves bi-directional transport of in-
formation to the point of interest. However, the combination of
Upwind with the central difference scheme in MUSCL will reduce
the oscillation. The SIMPLE algorithm is based on the predictor-
corrector method for the calculation of pressure using the Poisson
equation. The PISO involves one predictor step and two correc-
tor steps and may be seen as an extension of SIMPLE algorithm,
which leads to improved numerical accuracy [Oliviera and Issa
[27]]. The resulting differences will be presented subsequently. No-
slip boundary conditions are applied on the wall. Based on these
results the numerical scheme was chosen for the non-isothermal
case.
Table 1
Numerical schemes with pressure-velocity coupling for CFD analysis
Numerical Scheme
Upwind
ϕ f,SOU = ϕ + ∇ϕ .r
Where ϕ is the cell-centred variable and r is
the displacement vector from the upstream cell
centroid to the face centroid.
QUICK
ϕE = θ [ ScS+dSd ϕP + Sc S+cSd ϕE ] +
(1 − θ )[ SSuu+2
+Sc
Sc
ϕP − SuS+c Sc ϕW ]
Where, θ = 18 , and W/E represent the west/east
nodes.
MUSCL
ϕ f = θϕ f,CD + (1 − θ )ϕ f,SOU
Where ϕ f,CD and ϕ f,SOU are the face values
obtained from central difference and second
order upwind schemes, respectively.
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 169 (2021) 120916
5. Results and Discussion
5.1. Bubble Transport in Isothermal Liquid Layers
(7)
It may be argued that a bubble undergoing shape deformation
and path instability may never attain a terminal velocity due to
the intermittent changes [Tripathi et al., [7]]. The velocity will in-
crease as soon as bubble undergoes a breaking process and shrinks
to a smaller surface area. On the other hand, Tomiyama et al.,
[6] claimed that terminal velocity or velocity of bubble (VT ) is a
function of its aspect ratio (E) and Eötvös number (Eo). This is con-
sistent with Tripathi et al., [7]. In particular, the variation of termi-
nal velocity in the surface tension dominant regime indicates the
effect of shape deformation of the bubble [Tomiyama et al., [28]].
They experimentally investigated the shape and velocity of a sin-
through quiescent water, in an inner sub-channel. Two high speed
cameras were used to determine the instantaneous position of the
bubble. Subsequently, the bubble velocity was calculated for 0.65
≤ E ≤ 0.81. This experiment is considered as the benchmark in
this paper. The expression of bubble velocity based on the same is
given by,
√ √ 
sin−1 1 − E 2 − E 1 − E 2 8σ 4/3 ρ gd E 2/3
VT = E + (9)
1 − E2 ρl d 2 ρl 1 − E 2
A comparative assessment between eqn. (9) and numerically
obtained velocity of a rising bubble, at certain instants of time with
the described schemes, is shown in Figure 2. This quantitative as-
sessment shows that the ratio of experiment to computed values
are within 1.2 – 1.4, with an exception for QUICK scheme at time
step of 1 ms. This may be regarded as the involved maximum er-
ror in the computation with respect to the benchmark experiment.
The highest error range of 50-60% for the QUICK scheme allows
the postulate that path instability will be substantially overesti-
mated. The analysis revealed that the second order accurate up-
wind and the third order accurate MUSCL schemes provide compa-
rable values of bubble velocity inferring the negligible effect of nu-
merical schemes. Indeed, the derived theoretical bubble velocity is
also based on several assumptions including the limited change of
shape from the initial spherical one. The deviations between com-
puted and theoretical values are also consistent with the under-
pinning of the derived correlation in which the distortion factor
is assumed to be 1 for spheroid shape. Tomiyama et al., [28] also
reported deviations with the measured values. Thus, it may be
safely concluded that all the adopted numerical schemes are ca-
pable of predicting the trend at the most with the QUICK scheme
standing out. Hence, the need for experiments involving local de-
tails in the vicinity of a rising single bubble is realized. Further
p-v coupling
SIMPLE, PISO
Figure 2. Comparison between Vtheoretical /Vsimulation of a rising bubble with the dif-
ferent numerical schemes and p-v coupling.
4
S.S. Agarwal, K. Kumar, L. Chandra et al.
Figure 3. Computation of a rising bubble in quiescent water with PISO based p-v
coupling.
analysis revealed that the computed pressure fluctuations, in the
vicinity of a rising bubble, are comparable among the selected p-
v coupling schemes. Noting the limitations and capabilities of se-
lected schemes the dynamics around the rising bubble viz. vor-
tex shedding, path instability and the related shape deformation
are discussed. For this purpose, the higher order MUSCL scheme
is considered to demonstrate the effect of different p-v coupling
approaches on the analysis of bubble dynamics. The grid inde-
pendence test, using coarse and refined grid, for MUSCL scheme
with PISO p-v coupling, shows that the velocities are comparable.
Thus, it may be stated that even the coarse mesh is sufficient for
analysing the flow field around the rising air bubble. For the time
independence test, a reduced time-step of 0.5 ms is employed with
the refined mesh, and is indicated with MUSCL (PISO_reduced).
The analysis revealed the values within 1.2-1.4. Thus, it is inferred
that the time step of 1 ms is sufficient for further investigation.
5.1.1. Dynamics of a Rising Air Bubble
The shapes and dynamics of the rising air bubble at different
instants of time are shown in Figure 3. Following are observed:
a) The shape deformation of the rising air bubble is quite remark-
able for simulation using the upwind scheme in comparison to
the other schemes. This may be attributed to the offered nu-
merical diffusion.
b) The analysis reveals the path instability, as the centroid of the
bubble snapshot deviates from the centreline, and is depicted
with the vector sign. The rotation, as a consequence of weight
and buoyancy, is evident with the visual inspection for upwind
scheme from 1.9 to 2.1s.
c) All the schemes seem to capture the peripheral break-up of the
air bubble into smaller elements and are evident for the MUSCL
scheme from 1.7 to 1.9s. The effect of described numerical os-
cillation, for QUICK scheme, is evident from the early breakup
of bubble at around 1.1 s.
d) It may be observed that the bubble tends to reorient itself, after
the breakup along the axial direction, and also moves horizon-
tally. Thus, the path and shape deformation are directly affected
by the breakup phenomenon.
e) Furthermore, changes in computed velocity, in Figure 3, reveal
its decreasing and increasing nature. The decrease in velocity
is related to the offered drag due to the deformation of shape,
5
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 169 (2021) 120916
Figure 4. (a)Vortex shedding with velocity vectors in the wake of a bubble (b) pres-
sure contour using MUSCL scheme with PISO p-v coupling at t=4.5s.
and the increase is due to the sudden loss of air mass or the
reduction in air-liquid surface area.
5.1.2. Vortex Shedding
The shedding of vortex, behind a rising bubble, as a result
of flow separation is analyzed in this sub-section using MUSCL
scheme with PISO p-v coupling. The continuous vortex shedding
behind a rising bubble is illustrated in Figure 4(a), and the pres-
sure distribution around the bubble and in the wake is displayed
in Figure 4(b). The alternate shedding of vortex imparts momen-
tum to the quiescent water leading to the generation of velocity.
The vortex shedding will affect the motion of rising bubble on ac-
count of the local imbalance in momentum [see e.g. Sharaf et al.,
[29]]. The reported location of rising bubble centroid, in Sharaf et
al. [29], may be utilized for further validation. This can be analyzed
with x and y components of liquid velocity at the different vertical
distance viz. 0.05 m, 0.15 m and 0.20 m from the bubble centroid
at an instant as shown in Figure 5(a) and 5(b), respectively. The
following are inferred:
a) The magnitude of horizontal velocity (u) decreases with the de-
velopment of wake behind the bubble (Figure 5(a)). As a conse-
quence of momentum redistribution, the value of y component
velocity (v) increases (Figure 5(b)). The high value of u compo-
nents near the centre (at width = 0.06 m) reveals the presence
of a relatively stronger counter-rotating vortex at 0.05 m (see
Figure 5(a)). Here, the liquid will be transported from left to
right and hence a following bubble will exhibit path instability.
The extent of which will decrease along the axial direction. On
the other hand, the negative u velocity depicts the presence of a
relatively stronger clockwise vortex. It is interesting to observe
that the entire width of the domain gains momentum at an ax-
ial position of 0.2 m behind the bubble. Thus, the selection of
a much wider domain (>10Db ) is advisable to ensure quiescent
liquid at the vicinity of the wall. This is, perhaps, more than the
reported values [Chakraborty et. al., [24], Tomiyama et al., [28]],
and needed for analysing a chain of bubbles.
b) The highest positive value of axial velocity (v) at an axial posi-
tion of 0.05 m reveals the presence of a centrally located strong
clockwise-rotating vortex leading to the maximum at a width
of 0.04 - 0.05 m. This means, if a bubble is exposed to a near
wake region then it will accelerate along the height.
c) From the above-mentioned observations, it is clear, that the
horizontal and vertical motion of a trailing bubble will be
S.S. Agarwal, K. Kumar, L. Chandra et al.
Figure 5. Instantaneous velocities in the wake of rising bubble at different distances (0.05 m, 0.15 m, 0.2 m) from the bubble centroid at 4.4s (a) x - velocity (b) y – velocity
strongly affected by the wake of a leading bubble. A high posi-
tive vertical wake velocity depicts local acceleration of the trail-
ing bubble and vice versa. This will also transfer momentum
to the leading bubble Ma et al., [25]. Therefore, vortex shed-
ding leads to the wobbling motion of a trailing bubble in chain
[Wang and Socolofsky [30]].
d) It is worthwhile to note that the distribution of u and v dif-
fers remarkably from the Gaussian nature, which is adopted
by Wang and Socolofsky [30] to analyze the motion of trailing
bubbles in a chain. The presented analysis will allow, in future,
deriving a correction factor based on time to improve the same.
5.1.3. Path Instability
The objective of this subsection is two-fold. One is to compare
the different numerical schemes while computing the horizontal
displacement of the bubble from the centreline and the second is
to understand the possible movement of a trailing bubble, if it ex-
ists, in the wake of a leading bubble. For the first objective, the
computed horizontal displacement of bubble centroid, an indica-
tor of path instability, using the different numerical schemes and
PISO p-v coupling is shown in Figure 5(a). This illustrates that the
bubble moves along the positive x-direction (right) at the selected
instants of time. The connecting straight lines are used to identify
the symbols and not to be interpreted.
All the schemes provide similar trends, which is consistent with
the validation exercise. The QUICK scheme infers a larger horizon-
tal displacement in comparison to the other schemes, which is ex-
pected considering the nature of this scheme. This is also consis-
tent with inferences, from Figure 2, due to energy redistributions
between the suppressed vertical and the enhanced horizontal ve-
locity components. To investigate the effect of vortex shedding on
the horizontal displacement the corresponding u velocity compo-
nent of liquid in the vicinity of the bubble at about 0.05 m is con-
sidered for the MUSCL scheme (see Figure 6(b)). The velocity is
analyzed at the three different instants of time viz. 4, 4.5 and 5 s.
It may be argued that the imbalance in the local force field leads
to the horizontal-vertical displacement of the bubble. Thus, a bub-
ble, if exposed to the wake of a bubble, will experience movement
along the right and left from the centreline. This is illustrated with
Figure 6(b) using the bubble at those instants. The extent of hori-
zontal displacement from the centreline will be dependent on the
corresponding u velocity and the vertical displacement will be de-
pendent on the corresponding v velocity. It may be outlined that
the computed deviation from the centreline is smaller than that of
Sharaf et al. [29]. This is attributed to the considered bubble size
and fluid properties. Analyses of the velocity components will en-
able the prediction of possible path instability due to the wake ef-
fect behind a bubble or its combined effect for a chain of bubbles.
In future the computed values will be used to deduce an expres-
sion for the same.
6
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 169 (2021) 120916
5.2. Bubble Transport in Thermally Stratified Liquid Layers
Based on the inference, from the bubble transport, in isother-
mal liquid layers, MUSCL scheme with PISO p-v and temperature T
coupling is selected for investigating the bubble rising in thermally
stratified liquid layers. The operator-splitting based PISO algorithm,
as in Oliviera and Issa [27], demonstrated numerical stability and
computational superiority, for free convection with Ra up to 106 .
One question remains, if the numerical framework is applicable to
this test case. To address the above question, the correlation by
[Hassan et al., [31]] has been used for further assessment of this
numerical framework. The correlation is based on an interaction
term taking the geometric mean of the three force ratios viz. buoy-
ancy with inertia, surface tension and viscous force into account,
given by:
gρ d 3
5
I= 1
(10)
u(ρμσ ) 3
This term contains the combined effect of the force causing the
rise (i.e. buoyancy) with the forces opposing bubble centroid, sep-
arating the effect of stratification is not obvious. Using the above,
[Hassan et. al., [31]] obtained two non-dimensional numbers, V
(velocity number) and F (flow number), given by combining the
interaction term with Reynolds number and drag coefficient:
ud 3 ρ 3
2 2
V = = Re.I (11)
μ3 σ 3
1 1
gd 3 ρρ 3
8 2
F= = CD .I (12)
μ σ
1 1
3 3
where, Re = ρμud and CD = gdρ ρ
.
u2
It may be worthwhile to note that these non-dimensional num-
bers are unique for a particular instant of time. Thus, one argu-
ment arises is that these are interdependent and hence a correla-
tion between, say V and F would suffice, and such an approach will
reduce the number of such non-dimensional variables. Equation
(13) is the proposed correlation in Hassan [31], which is used for
comparison with the numerical results.
2
V = 0.75(log(F ) ) (13)
A comparative assessment between eqn. (13) and the numer-
ically obtained velocity number of a rising bubble at certain in-
stants of time with the described scheme is shown in Figure 10.
It can be observed that the velocity obtained from simulation is
in good agreement with the correlation. The quantitative assess-
ment shows that the ratio computed and correlated values are in
the range 1 - 1.06. Thus, an uncertainty of about 10% may be ex-
pected in the forgoing analysis (Fig. 7).
S.S. Agarwal, K. Kumar, L. Chandra et al.
Figure 6. The computed (a) temporal deviations of bubble centroid from the centreline and (b) horizontal velocity behind the bubble at a distance of 0.05 m.
Figure 7. Comparison of MUSCLE-p-v numerical framework with correlation for
bubble rise in thermally stratified liquid layers.
5.2.1. Flow Regime
The objective of this subsection is three-fold. First, investigate
the flow regime inside and outside the bubble, second, propose a
3D representation for bubble dynamics using Eo, Ga and Ra, and
third, investigate the effect of thermal stratification on the rising
velocity of bubble.
To address the first objective, the convection regime inside and
outside the bubble, at a height point, is investigated in Figure 8.
7
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 169 (2021) 120916
Figure 8. Variation of Ri with different time instants for air in bubble and the sur-
rounding liquid (therminol).
The Gr for air (inside bubble) and therminol (outside bubble)
has been calculated, by defining, T=Tsurface -Tcentroid for air and
T=Tbulk-liquid -Tsurface for therminol. For calculating Re, the bubble
velocity and the relative velocity of air (with respect to the bubble
velocity), along with the equivalent bubble diameter, are obtained
for therminol and air. The Gr ranges from O (10−2 ) to O (1) for air
S.S. Agarwal, K. Kumar, L. Chandra et al.
Figure 9. 3D representation of bubble shape over a range of Eo,Ga and Ra.
and from O (10−3 ) to O (10−2 ) for therminol. From Figure 8 the
following are inferred:
a) For t ≥ 1s, Ri ranges from O (10−3 ) to O (10−1 ), in therminol.
This indicates that forced convection is the mode of heat trans-
fer in therminol [Al-Sanea et. al., [32]]. This is attributed to the
generated motion in liquid layers due to imparted momentum
by the rising air bubble. An interesting situation arises that the
flow is imposed on the thermally stratified liquid layers. There-
fore, the relative motion between liquid layers will modify the
temperature gradient or enhance mixing. This is likely to be
beneficial for heat removal from a surface.
b) On the other hand, for t ≥ 1s, Ri ranges from O (10−1 ) to O (1)
in air, which suggests that mixed convection regime exists in-
side the bubble [Al-Sanea et. al., [32]]. Thus, the heat exchange
between air and therminol will be adversely affected. Moreover,
the shape deformation of the air bubble reflects the existence of
internal micro-convection. This will be discussed subsequently.
The above discussion leads to an important question: what is
(are) the relevant time-scale (s) that affect the heat transfer in air
(inside bubble), and between air and surrounding liquid? This will
be answered at a later sub-section.
To address the second objective, a 3D diagram has been pro-
posed, for analysing the bubble dynamics, using Eo, Ga and Ra,
to introduce the effect of temperature dependent parameters on
the shape of the bubble as shown in Figure 9. For isothermal con-
ditions, the shape of the bubble depends on Eo and Ga [Tripathi
et al., [7]]. In this study, 4 ≤ Eo≤ 14, Ra ranges from O (103 ) to
O (105 ) and Ga ranges from O (10) to O (102 ). This figure clearly
illustrates the change of bubble shape, indicated by arrows, with
respect to Ra, Ga and Eo.
To investigate the effect of temperature gradient on the velocity
of the rising bubble, the deduced correlation between Ra and F is
given by,
Ra = 2.6(log(F ) − 2.9 ) × 105
The correlation is deduced using the numerically obtained data
of Ra and F as shown in Figure 10. This proposed correlation re-
lates the effect of thermal stratification to the drag coefficient via
eqn. (11), and is of fundamental importance. Moreover, V and F are
already correlated, and thus, Ra = f (V) is generic in nature, con-
sidering the definition of F, V and Ra, depending on the various
forces. However, the correlation as in eqn. (14) is derived for 4 ≤
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 169 (2021) 120916
Figure 10. The deduced correlation between Ra and F from the simulation.
Eo≤ 14, Ra range from O (103 ) to O (105 ) and Ga range from O (10)
to O (102 ). The generalization requires further analysis for a wider
range of Ra, Eo and Ga, which may be undertaken at a later stage.
Hence, it is an attempt to reduce the number of non-dimensional
parameters. Hence, the proposed 3D diagram, in Fig. 9, is practical
in nature with Ra introducing the effect of thermal stratification to
bubble dynamics.
5.2.2. Micro-convection Inside a Rising Bubble
In this section the micro-convection, inside the rising air bub-
ble, is investigated. This aspect will affect the heat transfer be-
tween air (inside bubble) and therminol (outside bubble). The
computed velocity vector and temperature contour, inside the air
bubble, are shown in Figure 11, at a given instant of time. The fol-
lowing can be observed:
a) The computed air velocity, up to 7.5 cm/s, inside the bubble,
shows the micro-convection with the formation of two, distinct,
large vortices. Such a high velocity eventually affects the shape
of the air bubble. Interesting to note that the peripheral exten-
sions of the air bubble, especially at the corner, may eventually
lead to break-down of the bubble.
b) The micro-convection within the air bubble leads to tempera-
ture redistribution, and is evident near the upper surface from
temperature contour. Thermal stratification inside the air bub-
ble is visible from the lowest temperature at the bottom of air
bubble and from the highest temperature at the proximity of
the top surface.
5.2.3. Vortex Shedding and Path Instability
The vortex shedding behind the air bubble, shown in Figure 12,
reveals the attached wake at 3s, which is unlike the isothermal
case. The vortex shedding, at a later instant of time, 5s, is visi-
ble in this figure. The frequency of vortex shedding is about 2 Hz
(or time period, t, is 0.52s). The Strouhal number, for the vortex
shedding, is in the range 0.12 - 0.15. This is lower than that of the
isothermal liquid layers, which is in the range 0.15 - 0.17 [Rhosko
et al. [33]], for a similar range of Re. Accordingly, the path insta-
bility of the rising bubble, for isothermal and thermally stratified
liquid layers, will be different.
The computed deviation of the bubble centroid from the cen-
(14)
treline, with respect to the equivalent bubble diameter, is shown
in Figure 13. The extent of lateral deviation for thermally stratified
liquid layers differ significantly from Sharaf et al. [29]. This may be
attributed to the higher viscosity of therminol and the range of 4 ≤
Eo≤ 14 and 10 ≤ Ga≤ 40. One observation is obvious that the devi-
ation of centroid from the centreline is rather small, in comparison
to the bubble diameter. Thus, it may be inferred that the viscosity
reduction of a surrounding liquid will enhance path stability.
8
S.S. Agarwal, K. Kumar, L. Chandra et al.
Figure 11. (a)Micro convection inside the bubble at (b) temperature distribution inside the bubble at t = 5s.
Figure 12. The computed vortex shedding, behind a rising bubble, at (a) 3s and (b)
5s.
5.2.4. Heat Transfer and Mixing in Liquid Layers
The air and therminol (surrounding liquid) temperature varia-
tion, along the height, is shown in Figure 14a. The analysis revealed
that the lowest temperature (trough), for each of time instants lies
behind the centroid (indicated by circles) in the wake of the bub-
9
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 169 (2021) 120916
Figure 13. The computed non-dimensional lateral deviation with respect to equiv-
alent bubble diameter.
ble. This infers that the wake of the bubble is at a lower temper-
ature than the centroid of the bubble. This is consistent with the
temperature contour in Figure 11. This infers heat transfer from air
(in bubble) to therminol in wake region. Furthermore, the width
of the trough decreases as the bubble rises with time. This sug-
gests mixing or temperature distribution in liquid layers. Therefore,
it is concluded that a rising bubble, in thermally stratified liquid
layers, will enhance the thermal mixing. This means, not only the
heat transfer from a hot surface will enhance, but also colder liquid
will move towards the hotter surface, as a result of the mixing, and
may inhibit/delay the formation of thin-film. As a consequence, the
frequency of bubble generation, from the hot surface, may increase.
This understanding may be exploited for the design of reliable nu-
clear reactors/miniature cooling devices. Finally, based on the dis-
S.S. Agarwal, K. Kumar, L. Chandra et al.
Figure 14. (a) Temperature distribution in therminol and air along the height about the centreline at different instants of time and (b) overall heat transfer process
Figure 15. The ratio of convective time scale of air and therminol for a rising bub-
ble in thermally stratified liquid layers.
cussion, thus far, a schematic representation of the heat transfer,
due to the rise of a bubble in thermally stratified liquid layers, is
provided in Figure 14b.
5.2.5. Time Scale analysis
The time-scale analysis shown in Figure 15 aims at investigating
the heat transfer in air within a bubble, and between air and ther-
minol (surrounding fluid), through the bubble surface. Therefore,
convective time scales for heat transfer in air, and for heat transfer
between therminol and air is defined. Here, instantaneous effective
bubble diameter is chosen as the length scale for obvious reason.
The average velocity, over a horizontal line, passing through the
bubble centroid, is used as the velocity scale in air. The relative
velocity of bubble with respect to therminol is used as the veloc-
ity scale, that affects the heat transfer between air and therminol.
The ratio of convective time-scale for air and surrounding liq-
uid clearly demonstrates that the heat transfer rate will be domi-
nated by the motion of air inside bubble. Therefore, a deeper un-
derstanding of the micro-convection phenomenon is necessary. Ini-
tially, a higher value of the ratio also coincides well the shape
change, from spherical (zero velocity) to a non-spherical shape
(non-zero velocity). Thus, shape deformation, associated with the
micro-convection plays a favourable role in the heat transfer by
way of reducing the ratio of convective time-scale. This is evident
10
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 169 (2021) 120916
from the decreasing ratio of time scale, up to 0.25s, and the change
in bubble shape is shown in Figure 9. However, breaking of bubble
or their coalescence, may adversely affect the heat transfer pro-
cess. Thus, in future, an investigation revealing the relative effect
of bubble shape deformation and its breakage/coalescence is fore-
seen.
6. Conclusion
The paper presents a comparative assessment of the numerical
schemes with different pressure-velocity coupling approaches in
ANSYS-FLUENT to analyze the dynamics of a rising bubble in qui-
escent liquid in the first section. The second section presents the
temperature effect on bubble dynamics and a quantitative analysis
of the wake structure behind the bubble. Following are the major
observations based on the performed analysis:
6.1. Bubble Transport in Isothermal Liquid Layers
a) All the approaches are capable of predicting the trend of rising
bubble velocity. The second order upwind and the third order
MUSCL schemes provide a comparable estimate of bubble ve-
locity. The second order QUICK scheme under-predicts the ve-
locity of the rising bubble in comparison to the other schemes.
b) The wake analysis revealed non-Gaussian nature of the velocity
components. The region of influence grows beyond ten times
the diameter of the bubble. Thus, a wide domain may be pre-
ferred for analysing the bubble chain in a confined liquid.
c) The analysis of horizontal displacement, as an indicator of the
path instability, reveals upwind and MUSCL provides a com-
parable deviation from the centreline. Whereas, the QUICK
scheme over predicts the same. MUSCL scheme with PISO p-v
coupling is found to be the most suitable scheme for this prob-
lem.
6.2. Bubble Transport in Thermally Stratified Liquid Layers
a) A 3D shape map for the bubble is provided with the inclusion
of the Rayleigh number. Further simulations need to be carried
out to study the effect of Rayleigh number on all the different
shape regimes of the bubble.
S.S. Agarwal, K. Kumar, L. Chandra et al.
b) The heat transfer analysis inside the air bubble revealed the ex-
istence of micro-convection which subsequently leads to tem-
perature redistribution inside the bubble. The micro-convection
also affects the shape of the bubble.
c) The heat transfer analysis in liquid layers revealed enhance-
ment of thermal mixing in the wake of the rising bubble.
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