Bubbles dissolution in cylindrical microchannels

TL;DR

This study investigates how various factors like bubble size, spacing, and fluid properties influence bubble dissolution in cylindrical microchannels, identifying five regimes based on the Péclet number and bubble interactions.

Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of bubble dissolution regimes in microchannels, highlighting the effects of deformability, surfactants, and off-center positioning across a wide range of Péclet numbers.

Findings

Five distinct dissolution regimes identified based on Péclet number.

Bubble deformability affects Sherwood number in high Pe regimes.

Rigid interfaces lead to thicker boundary layers and reduced dissolution.

Abstract

This work focuses on the dissolution of a train of unconfined bubbles in cylindrical microchannels. We investigate how the mass transfer is affected by the channel and bubble sizes, distance between bubbles, diffusivity, superficial velocity, deformation of the bubble, the presence of surfactants in the limit of rigid interface and off-centred positions of the bubbles. We analyse the influence of the dimensionless numbers and especially the distance between bubbles and the P\'eclet number, Pe, which we vary among eight decades and identify five different dissolution regimes. We show different concentration patterns and the dependence of the Sherwood numbers, Sh. These regimes can be classified by either the importance of the streamline diffusion or by the interaction between bubbles. For small Pe the streamline diffusion is not negligible as compared to convection whereas for large Pe, convection dominates in the streamline direction and, thus, crosswind diffusion becomes crucial in governing the dissolution through boundary layers or of the remaining wake behind the bubbles. Bubbles interaction takes place for very small Pe for which the dissolution is purely diffusive or for very large Pe numbers in which case long wakes eventually reach the following bubble. We also observe that the bubble deformability mainly affects the Sh in the regime for very large Pe in which bubbles interaction matters, and also that the rigid interface effect affects the boundary layer and the remaining wake. The effect of off-centred position of the bubble, determined by the transverse force balance, is also limited to large Pe. The boundary layers in rigid bubble surfaces are thicker as compared to those on stress-free bubble surface and, thus, the dissolution is smaller. For centred bubbles, the influence of inertia on the dissolution is negligible. Finally, we discuss underlying hypothesis of the model.