Abstract
Experimental investigation on drag reduction by air bubble injection is carried out to elucidate the influence of bubble clustering in a horizontal rectangular channel. Silicone oil is used as working fluid so that experimental uncertainty due to contamination is removed particular for the clustering phenomenon. Bubbles formed chained arrangement in the streamwise direction on laminar flow states, and disperse isotropically on turbulent states. Such a bubble clustering behavior is analyzed quantitatively with image processing to obtain probability distribution of the nearest bubbles.
