Numerical Simulation of a Taylor Bubble in a Stagnant Liquid inside a Vertical Pipe

Abstract

The feasibility of a detailed numerical simulation of a Taylor bubble in a stagnant liquid filling in a vertical pipe was examined in the present study. The simulation was carried out using the volume of fluid method. Since there have been few quantitative experiments on Taylor bubble shape, physical experiments under a wide range of the Eotvos number (Eo) and Morton number (M) were also conducted using sucrose solution and air at room temperature and atmospheric pressure. It was confirmed by the experiments that the bluntness of the nose of the bubble, the flatness of the tail, and the liquid film thickness around the bubble are strongly affected by the two dimensionless numbers, Eo and M. Calculated terminal rising velocities and bubble shapes agreed fairly well with the measured ones, which indicates that the effects of drag force, buoyancy and surface tension force on the bubble were well predicted in the simulation.