Frictional drag reduction in bubbly Couette–Taylor flow

Frictional drag reduction due to the presence of small bubbles is investigated experimentally using a Couette–Taylor flow system; i.e., shear flow between concentric cylinders. Torque and bubble behavior are measured as a function of Reynolds number up to Re=5000 while air bubbles are injected constantly and rise through an array of vortical cells. Silicone oil is used to avoid the uncertain interfacial property of bubbles and to produce nearly monosized bubble distributions. The effect of drag reduction on sensitivity and power gain are assessed. The sensitivity exceeds unity at Re<2000, proving that the effect of the reduction in drag is greater than that of the reduction in mixture density. This is due to the accumulation of bubbles toward the rotating inner cylinder, which is little affected by turbulence. The power gain, which is defined by the power saving from the drag reduction per the pumping power of bubble injection, has a maximum value of O(10) at higher Re numbers around 2500. An image processing measurement shows this is because of the disappearance of azimuthal waves when the organized bubble distribution transforms from toroidal to spiral modes. Moreover, the axial spacing of bubble clouds expands during the transition, which results in an effective reduction in the momentum exchange.