Wall shear stress modified by bubbles in a horizontal channel flow of silicone oil in the transition region

Abstract We performed laboratory experiments on bubbly channel flows using silicone oil, which has a low surface tension and clean interface to bubbles, as a test fluid to evaluate the wall shear stress modification for different regimes of bubble migration status. The channel Reynolds numbers of the flow ranged from 1000 to 5000, covering laminar, transition and turbulent flow regimes. The bubble deformation and swarms were classified as packing, film, foam, dispersed, and stretched states based on visualization of bubbles as a bulk void fraction changed. In the dispersed and film states, the wall shear stress reduced by 9% from that in the single-phase condition; by contrast, the wall shear stress increased in the stretched, packing, and foam states. We carried out statistical analysis of the time-series of the wall shear stress in the transition and turbulent-flow regimes. Variations of the PDF of the shear stress and the higher order moments in the statistic indicated that the injection of bubbles generated pseudo-turbulence in the transition regime and suppressed drag-inducing events in the turbulent regime. Bubble images and measurements of shear stress revealed a correlated wave with a time lag, for which we discuss associated to the bubble dynamics and effective viscosity of the bubble mixture in wall proximity.