Effect of Electric Field on a 3D Rising Bubble in Viscous Fluids

Understanding of a rising bubble in fluid with the presence of external fields is of fundamental importance in boiling heat transfer and gas-liquid flows. In this paper, a computational methodology is presented for a modeling study of hydrodynamic behavior of a bubble rising in fluid subject to an applied electric field. The computational model is developed by solving the Navier-Stokes equation coupled with the phase field model and electric field equations. The coupled model is capable of predicting the evolution of electric field, bubble motion and deformation and the medium fluid. Numerical simulations were conducted to study the combined effect of coupled electrical force, gravity, surface tension and viscous force on the deformation and motion of a bubble as it ascends through the liquid. The liquid and gas are considered as the dielectric fluids and both vertical and horizontal electric fields are studied. The in-house Fortran code was developed to enable the simulation, and numerical results are presented showing that the deformation and rising speed of the bubble are affected by the applied electric field in both magnitude and direction.