Bubble growth mechanism in carbon foams

The present work is a numerical study to predict the growth mechanism of a non-spherical bubble assisted for a carbon foam fabrication process. An approach for two dimensional non-spherical mass-diffusion controlled bubble growth in an isothermal Newtonian liquid of infinite extent is considered. Using the two dimensional unsteady form of the equations governing the conservation of mass and momentum, bubble growth is solved as a function of time using a fixed-grid sharp interface finite volume method. A comparative study is performed by considering previous cases of study and shows good agreement, which reflects the validity of the present model. A parametric study highlighting the effects of the non-spherical growth of the bubble is performed in order to emphasize how controlled bubble growth can be achieved. In each case a change in a particular parameter resulted in a distinct change of the bubble shape. (c) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.