Lumped models of gas bubbles in thermal gradients (Q1367279)

The motion of spherical gas bubbles in isothermal and non-isothermal glass melts is analyzed both analytically and numerically. For buoyant, thermocapillary, and mixed buoyant-thermocapillary regimes, the author derives analytical expressions for the bubble radius and its location as functions of time in the absence of mass transfer, using a linear temperature gradient, a linear dependence of surface tension on temperature and average values of dynamic viscosity and surface tension. Numerical solution to both the bubble radius and its location are obtained using local values of both the dynamic viscosity and surface tension, in the absence of mass transfer. It is observed from numerical results that the bubble radius at refining is about eight percent of the bubble's initial radius, while the bubble velocity increases as the initial bubble radius, mean temperature and thermal gradient increase. The bubbles in zero-gravity environment and without mass transfer move slowly, and the bubble radius and velocity increase as the initial bubble radius and temperature gradient increase, but they decrease as the glass melt mean temperature decreases. Numerical results for gas bubbles with mass transfer in non-isothermal glass melts also indicate that for a bubble containing only oxygen initially, nitrogen, carbondioxide and water vapor diffuse from the glass melt to the bubble, whereas the oxygen diffuses from the bubble to the glass melt. It is shown that the time required by a bubble to be dissolved increases as the initial bubble radius, mean temperature, and thermal gradient increase.