Three-dimensional investigation of the two-phase flow structure in a bubbly pipe flow

Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is a non-intrusive measurement technique, which can be used to study the structure of various fluid flows. PIV is used to measure the time varying full field velocity data of a particle-seeded flow field within either a two-dimensional plane or three-dimensional volume. PIV is a very efficient measurement technique since it can obtain both qualitative and quantitative spatial information about the flow field being studied. This information can be further processed into information such as vorticity and pathlines. Other flow measurement techniques (Laser Doppler Velocimetry, Hot Wire Anemometry, etc...) only provide quantitative information at a single point. PIV can be used to study turbulence structures if a sufficient amount of data can be acquired and analyzed, and it can also be extended to study two-phase flows if both phases can be distinguished. In this study, the flow structure around a bubble rising in a pipe filled with water was studied in three-dimensions. The velocity of the rising bubble and the velocity field of the surrounding water was measured. Then the turbulence intensities and Reynolds stresses were calculated from the experimental data. (author)