Numerical simulation of the interaction between vortex ring and bubble plume

In present paper a three-dimensional Vortex-In-Cell method with two-way coupling effect was developed to study the bubble plume entrainment by a vortex ring. In this method the continuous flow was calculated by the three-dimensional Vortex-In-Cell method and the bubbles are tracked through bubble motion equation. Two-way coupling effect between continuous flow and dispersed bubbles is considered by introducing a vorticity source term, which is induced by the change of void fraction gradient in each computational cell. After validated by the comparison between experimental measurements and simulation results for the motion of vortex rings and the rising velocity of bubble plume, present method is implemented to simulate the interaction between an evolving vortex ring and a rising bubble plume. It was found that there is little effect of the bubble entrainment to the total circulation of vortex ring while the effect of bubble entrainment to the vortex ring structure is quite obvious. The bubble entrainment by the vortex ring not only changed the vorticity distribution in the vortex structure, but also displaced the positions of the vortex cores. The vorticity in the lower vortex core of the vortex ring decreases more than that in the upper vortex core of the vortex ring while the vortex core in the upper part of the vortex ring is displaced to the center of vortex ring by the entrained bubbles. Smaller bubbles are easier to be entrained by the large scale vortex structure and the transportation distance is in inverse proportion to bubble diameter. (C) 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.