Interaction of bubbles in an inviscid and low-viscosity shear flow.

The pressure loads on two identical spherical bubbles impulsively introduced in an inviscid simple shear flow are calculated. The interaction force due to these pressure loads is employed to model the dynamics of air bubbles injected to a low-viscosity fluid sheared in a Couette device at the first shear flow instability where the bubbles are trapped inside the stable Taylor vortex. It was shown that the interaction between the bubbles in the primary shear flow drives them away from each other.

Interaction of equal-size bubbles in shear flow.

The inertia-induced forces on two identical spherical bubbles in a simple shear flow at small but finite Reynolds number, for the case when the bubbles are within each other's inner viscous region, are calculated making use of the reciprocal theorem. This interaction force is further employed to model the dynamics of air bubbles injected to a viscous fluid sheared in a Couette device at the first shear flow instability where the bubbles are trapped inside the stable Taylor vortex. It was shown that, during a long time scale, the inertial interaction between the bubbles in the primary shear flow drives them away from each other and, as a result, equal-size bubbles eventually assume an ordered string with equal separation distances between all neighbors.

Particle tracking velocimetry and particle image velocimetry study of the slow motion of rough and smooth solid spheres in a yield-stress fluid.

We report experimental evidence of an effect opposite to the "solidification" of small bubbles in liquid where the surface can become immobile. Namely, it is demonstrated that smooth solid spheres falling in a yield-stress fluid under the action of gravity can behave similar to drops. Particle tracking velocimetry was used to determine the shape of the yielded region around solid spherical particles undergoing slow stationary motion in 0.