Bubble break-up in a straining flow at finite Reynolds numbers

It has recently been shown that the behaviour of a gas bubble in a uniaxial straining flow can be used as a simplified model to describe some important aspects of the more complex, turbulent bubble break-up problem, provided that the Reynolds and the Weber numbers are sufficiently large. In the present investigation, we extend that work and, using a level-set numerical scheme, we analyse the influence of the bubble Reynolds number on break-up time, tb , for supercritical Weber numbers, We\,>\, Wec , where Wec is the critical Weber number. It is observed that the viscosity introduces corrections of O(1/ Re) in the break-up time obtained in the limit Re→ ∞ . In addition, the action of other possible mechanisms of break-up at subcritical Weber numbers, We\,<\, Wec , is also explored.