Effect of surfactant on elongated bubbles in capillary tubes at high Reynolds number
Assen Batchvarov, Lyes Kahouadji, Mirco Magnini, C. Ricardo Constante-Amores, Seungwon Shin, Jalel Chergui, Damir Jurić, Richard V. Craster, Omar K. Matar
Abstract
The effect of surfactants on the tail and film dynamics of elongated gas bubbles propagating through circular capillary tubes is investigated through an extensive three-dimensional numerical study in the context of a hybrid front-tracking/level-set method. A systematic analysis of the impact of a wide range of surfactant properties on the bubble and flow dynamics in the presence of inertial effects is performed. The presence of surfactant suppresses the tail undulations as it accumulates near the bubble tail, and associated Marangoni stresses lead to local rigidification of the interfacial dynamics.