Hostname: page-component-74656f9884-8r8nv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-10T14:51:57.947Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Bubble entrainment and liquid–bubble interaction under unsteady breaking waves

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 November 2014

Morteza Derakhti*
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Coastal Research, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
James T. Kirby
Affiliation:
Center for Applied Coastal Research, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: derakhti@udel.edu
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Liquid–bubble interaction, especially in complex two-phase bubbly flow under breaking waves, is still poorly understood. In the present study, we perform a large-eddy simulation using a Navier–Stokes solver extended to incorporate entrained bubble populations, using an Eulerian–Eulerian formulation for a polydisperse bubble phase. The volume-of-fluid method is used for free-surface tracking. We consider an isolated unsteady deep water breaking event generated by a focused wavepacket. Bubble contributions to dissipation and momentum transfer between the water and air phases are considered. The model is shown to predict free-surface evolution, mean and turbulent velocities, and integral properties of the entrained dispersed bubbles fairly well. We investigate turbulence modulation by dispersed bubbles as well as shear- and bubble-induced dissipation, in both spilling and plunging breakers. We find that the total bubble-induced dissipation accounts for more than 50 % of the total dissipation in the breaking region. The average dissipation rate per unit length of breaking crest is usually written as $b{\it\rho}g^{-1}c_{b}^{5}$ , where ${\it\rho}$ is the water density, $g$ is the gravitational acceleration and $c_{b}$ is the phase speed of the breaking wave. The breaking parameter, $b$ , has been poorly constrained by experiments and field measurements. We examine the time-dependent evolution of $b$ for both constant-steepness and constant-amplitude wavepackets. A scaling law for the averaged breaking parameter is obtained. The exact two-phase transport equation for turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) is compared with the conventional single-phase transport equation, and it is found that the former overpredicts the total subgrid-scale dissipation and turbulence production by mean shear during active breaking. All of the simulations are also repeated without the inclusion of a dispersed bubble phase, and it is shown that the integrated TKE in the breaking region is damped by the dispersed bubbles by approximately 20 % for a large plunging breaker to 50 % for spilling breakers. In the plunging breakers, the TKE is damped slightly or even enhanced during the initial stage of active breaking.

Information

Type
Papers
Copyright
© 2014 Cambridge University Press 
Figure 0

Table 1. Input parameters for the simulated cases.

Figure 1

Table 2. Input parameters for the experiments that are similar to the simulated cases.

Figure 2

Table 3. Numerical set-up for the 3D LES cases.

Figure 3

Table 4. Model input parameters for the 3D LES cases.

Figure 4

Figure 1. Snapshots of the free-surface (isosurface of ${\it\psi}=0.5$) evolution for P1 ($S=0.54$).

Figure 5

Figure 2. Snapshots of the 3D bubble plume (isosurface of ${\it\alpha}^{b}=0.1\,\%$) evolution in the breaking region for P3 ($S=0.352$). (a) Side view of the 3D results and (b) photographs of the corresponding experiment adopted from RM, figure 10.

Figure 6

Figure 3. Snapshots of 3D bubble plume (isosurface of ${\it\alpha}^{b}=0.05\,\%$) evolution in the breaking region for P1 ($S=0.54$). (a) Side view of the 3D results and (b) top view of the 3D results.

Figure 7

Figure 4. Time-dependent contour plots of the spanwise averaged void fraction distributions ($\bar{{\it\alpha}}^{b}\,\%$) in the breaking region for P1 ($S=0.54$).

Figure 8

Figure 5. Spanwise-averaged bubble void fraction ($\bar{{\it\alpha}}^{b}$) time series for P1 ($S=0.54$) at (a) $x^{\ast }=0.56,z^{\ast }=0.03$; (b) $x^{\ast }=0.61,z^{\ast }=0.02$ and (c) $x^{\ast }=0.61,z^{\ast }=0.01$. The corresponding positions in Rojas & Loewen (2010) measurement are J, K and L, respectively.

Figure 9

Table 5. Summary of the void fraction results corresponding to figure 5. The corresponding measured values by Rojas & Loewen (2010) are given inside the parentheses. Here, $\bar{{\it\alpha}}_{ave}^{b}$ is obtained from time averaging of $\bar{{\it\alpha}}^{b}$ during the interval $t_{1}^{\ast }.

Figure 10

Figure 6. Time-averaged vertically integrated spanwise-averaged volume of —— the dispersed bubbles, $\overline{\overline{V}}_{b}\ (\text{m}^{3}\ \text{m}^{-2})$, and  – – –  the cavities captured by the VOF model, $\overline{\overline{V}}_{c}\ (\text{m}^{3}\ \text{m}^{-2})$. (a) P1 ($S=0.54$), (b) P2 ($S=0.45$) and (c) SP1 ($S=0.38$).

Figure 11

Figure 7. Integral properties of the bubble plume for P1 ($S=0.54$). (a) Normalized volume of the entrained air: ——, $V^{b}/V_{0}$; – – –, $(V^{b}+V^{c})/V_{0}$. (b) Normalized bubble plume area: ——, $A^{b}/V_{0}$. (c) Averaged volume fraction $(\%)$: ——, ${\it\alpha}_{ave}^{b}$; – – –, $(V^{b}+V^{c})/A^{b}$. The total volume of the cavities captured by the VOF model is $V^{c}=\int _{A}(1-\bar{{\it\psi}})\;\text{d}A$. The circles are the measurements of the corresponding case adopted from LM, figure 3.

Figure 12

Figure 8. Normalized centroid positions of the bubble plume for P1 ($S=0.54$).

Figure 13

Figure 9. Normalized spanwise-averaged and r.m.s. velocities for P3 ($S=0.352$) at $x^{\ast }=0.6$, $z^{\ast }=-0.025$: —— with and  – – –  without the inclusion of dispersed bubbles. The circles are the measurements of the corresponding case adopted from RM, figure 41.

Figure 14

Figure 10. Normalized low-pass filtered spanwise-averaged and r.m.s. velocities for P3, at (a,c) $x^{\ast }=0.15$ and (b,d) $x^{\ast }=0.60$ at different elevations: —— with and  – – – without the inclusion of dispersed bubbles. The circles are the measurements of the corresponding case adopted from RM, figures 42 and 46.

Figure 15

Figure 11. Snapshots of the normalized spanwise-averaged TKE, $\overline{k}$, for (a) P1 ($S=0.54$) and (b) P3 ($S=0.352$). The reference value is $C_{c}^{2}$.

Figure 16

Figure 12. Snapshots of the spanwise-averaged SGS dissipation rate, $\overline{{\it\varepsilon}_{sgs}}\ (\text{m}^{2}\ \text{s}^{-3})$, for P1, from the simulation (a) with and (b) without the inclusion of the dispersed bubbles.

Figure 17

Figure 13. Dissipation rate per unit length of crest due to the different mechanisms for (a) P1, (b) SP1 and (c) S1: ——, shear-induced $\check{\overline{{\it\varepsilon}_{SI}}}/L_{c}^{2}$; – – –, bubble-induced $\check{\overline{{\it\varepsilon}_{BI}}}/L_{c}^{2}$; — ⋅ —, viscous dissipation $\check{\overline{{\it\varepsilon}_{r}}}/L_{c}^{2}$. The dashed lines indicate $(t^{\ast })^{n}$, where $n$ is the number on the lines.

Figure 18

Figure 14. Total breaking-induced dissipation per unit length of crest ($\text{J}\ \text{m}^{-1}$) for (a) P1, (b) SP1 and (c) S1: ——, $\hat{{\it\epsilon}}_{total}=\hat{{\it\epsilon}}_{r}+\hat{{\it\epsilon}}_{sgs}$; – – –, $\hat{{\it\epsilon}}_{sgs}^{SI}$; — ⋅ —, $\hat{{\it\epsilon}}_{sgs}^{BI}$; $\cdots \cdots \,$, $\hat{{\it\epsilon}}_{r}$;——,$\hat{{\it\epsilon}}_{total}^{nb}$ (the total dissipation from the simulations without the inclusion of the dispersed bubbles).

Figure 19

Table 6. Total dissipation in the breaking region. LM approximated the total dissipation by estimating the total energy flux difference between upstream and downstream of the breaking region.

Figure 20

Figure 15. Different breaking parameters (a) $b$, (b) $b/(S-S_{0})$, (c) ${\it\beta}$ and (d) $\overline{\overline{{\it\beta}}}$ for ——, P1; — ⋅ —, P2; – – –, SP1;$\cdots \cdots \,$, S1; ——, P3; - - -, S2.

Figure 21

Figure 16. The two-phase total production rate by mean shear, $\check{P}_{total}^{k}=\check{P}^{k}+\check{P}_{ex1}^{k}+\check{P}_{ex2}^{k}$, from simulations —— with and  – – – without the inclusion of the dispersed bubbles for (a) P1, (b) SP1 and (c) S1. The reference value is ${\it\rho}L_{c}^{2}C_{c}^{2}T_{c}^{-1}$.

Figure 22

Figure 17. The two-phase total SGS dissipation rate by mean shear, $\check{{\it\epsilon}}_{total}^{k}=\check{{\it\epsilon}}^{k}+\check{{\it\epsilon}}_{ex1}^{k}+\check{{\it\epsilon}}_{ex2}^{k}$, from simulations —— with and  – – –  without the inclusion of the dispersed bubbles for (a) P1, (b) SP1 and (c) S1. The reference value is ${\it\rho}L_{c}^{2}C_{c}^{2}T_{c}^{-1}$.

Figure 23

Figure 18. Normalized total resolved TKE, ${\check{k}}$, in the breaking region, from simulations —— with and  – – –  without the inclusion of the dispersed bubbles for (a) P1, (b) SP1 and (c) S1. The reference value is $L_{c}^{2}C_{c}^{2}(S-S_{0})S_{0}^{4}$.

Figure 24

Figure 19. Total spanwise-averaged interfacial forces exerted on the water column by the bubbles, $\check{F}_{i,type}^{m}$, for P1 ($S=0.54$) in (a) the streamwise direction and (b) the vertical direction: ——, drag force; – – –, virtual mass force; — ⋅ —, lift force. The reference value is ${\it\rho}L_{c}^{2}C_{c}T_{c}^{-1}$.

Figure 25

Figure 20. Total spanwise-averaged interfacial forces exerted on the water column by the bubbles for S1 ($S=0.36$). The definitions are the same as in figure 19.

Figure 26

Figure 21. The rate of work done on (a) the organized and (b) the turbulent motion by ——, the drag force; – – –, the virtual mass force; and — ⋅ —, the lift force for P1. The total rate of work done on (c) the organized, $\check{B}^{m}$, and (d) the turbulent, $\check{B}^{k}$, motion. The reference value is ${\it\rho}L_{c}^{2}C_{c}^{2}T_{c}^{-1}$.

Figure 27

Figure 22. The rates of work done on the organized and turbulent motions by the dispersed bubbles for S1. The definitions are the same as in figure 21.

Figure 28

Figure 23. Total production rate by mean shear in the breaking region based on the two-phase (——), $\check{P}^{k}+\check{P}_{ex1}^{k}+\check{P}_{ex2}^{k}$, and the single-phase transport equation (– – –), $\check{P}^{SP}$, for (a) P1, (b) SP1 and (c) S1. The reference value is ${\it\rho}L_{c}^{2}C_{c}^{2}T_{c}^{-1}$.

Figure 29

Figure 24. Total SGS dissipation rate in the breaking region based on the two-phase (——), $\check{{\it\epsilon}}_{sgs}^{k}+\check{{\it\epsilon}}_{sgs,ex1}^{k}+\check{{\it\epsilon}}_{sgs,ex2}^{k}$, and the single-phase transport equation (– – –), $\check{{\it\epsilon}}_{sgs}^{SP}$, for (a) P1, (b) SP1 and (c) S1. The reference value is ${\it\rho}L_{c}^{2}C_{c}^{2}T_{c}^{-1}$.

Figure 30

Figure 25. Different terms in the total production rate by mean shear: ——, $\check{P}^{k}$; – – –, $\check{P}_{ex1}^{k}$; — ⋅ —, $\check{P}_{ex2}^{k}$; for (a) P1, (b) SP1 and (c) S1. The reference value is ${\it\rho}L_{c}^{2}C_{c}^{2}T_{c}^{-1}$.

Figure 31

Figure 26. Different terms in the total SGS dissipation rate: ——, $\check{{\it\epsilon}}_{sgs}^{k}$; – – –, $\check{{\it\epsilon}}_{sgs,ex1}^{k}$; — ⋅ —, $\check{{\it\epsilon}}_{sgs,ex2}^{k}$; for (a) P1, (b) SP1 and (c) S1. The reference value is ${\it\rho}L_{c}^{2}C_{c}^{2}T_{c}^{-1}$.