Neutrally Buoyant Bubbles Used as Flow Tracers in Air

Michael F. Kerho and Michael B. Bragg
University of Illinois, Urbana, IL 61801


ABSTRACT
Research has been performed to determine the accuracy of neutrally buoyant and near-neutrally-buoyant bubbles used as flow tracers in an incompressible potential flowfield. Experimental and computational results are presented to evaluate the quantitative accuracy of neutrally buoyant bubbles using a commercially available helium bubble generation system. A two-dimensional experiment was conducted to determine actual bubble trajectories in the stagnation region of a NACA 0012 airfoil at 0 deg. angle of attack. A computational scheme evaluating the equation of motion for a single bubble was also used to determine the factors which affect a bubble's trajectory. The theoretical and computational analysis have shown that neutrally buoyant bubbles will trace complex flow patterns faithfully in the flowfield of interest. Experimental analysis revealed that the use of bubbles generated by the commercially available system to trace flow patterns should be limited to qualitative measurements unless care is taken to ensure neutral buoyancy.






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