Numerical studies on effects of bubbles regular array on the liquid-phase turbulence

It is well known that additive drag-reducing methods have broadly developing prospects, so studies on mechanisms of additive drag reduction are very necessary. We hypothesised that the main reason for bubbles induced drag reduction is the modification on liquid-phase turbulence structure by the addition of bubbles, and therefore such modification is the focus of our investigation. In this paper, effects of bubbles on liquid-phase turbulence under the circumstance of regular bubble array were investigated by using Euler-Lagrange two-way numerical simulations. The liquid-phase velocity field was solved by using direct numerical simulations (DNS) in Euler frame of reference, and the bubble motion was tracked by using Newtonian motion equations that took into account interaction forces including drag force, shear lift force, gravity force, buoyant force, and inertia force in Lagrange frame of reference. The coupling between the phases was realised by regarding the interphase forces as momentum source terms of the continuous phase. Similarities and differences for effects of bubbles and surfactants on liquid turbulent flows were also analysed. The study indicated that addition of bubbles enhances the mean streamwise velocity, greatly reduces the Reynolds stress, and shows anisotropic suppression to the velocity fluctuations. The interphase force has a great influence on budget of energy balance. It is a gain term near the wall and is a loss term in a wide range of the channel core.