Bubbly Two-Phase Flow: Part I- Characteristics, Structures, Behaviors and Flow Patterns

An important topic in fluid dynamics is multiphase flows. Multiphase flows can be found in numerous fields in engineering, e.g. aerospace, biomedical, chemical, electrical, environmental, mechanical, materials, nuclear and naval engineering. There is an enormous variation in applications, e.g. rocket engines, chemical reactors, contamination spreading, multiphase mixture transport, cavitation, sonoluminescence, ink-jet printing, particle transport in blood, crystallization, multiphase cooling, fluidized beds, drying of gases, air entrainment in oceans/rivers and anti-icing fluids. The number of papers on multiphase flow in the field of fluid dynamics is enormous and still growing. The diversity of flow types makes a general description almost impossible. This makes fundamental research necessary. Especially, controlled experiments are needed for a better physical understanding and as test cases for numerical and theoretical work. The purpose of this paper is the desire to demonstrate, review and summarize the major finding of the previous research of bubbly two-phase flow characteristics, structures, behaviors and flow patterns. Moreover, to elucidate some important models and techniques to measure the two-phase bubbly flow parameters such as bubble motion, flow regime, bubble shape which play a considerable role in many engineering applications.