Finite Element Modeling of Bubbles in Yield Stress Materials
EMSL Project ID
1965
Abstract
This research seeks to examine the interactions of bubbles in yield stress, or visco-plastic materials. Such materials include paints, foodstuffs, waste sludges and slurries, fermentation broths, and many foams, suspensions and emulsions. The behavior of yield stress materials is important not only from a fundamental fluid mechanics point of view, but also in addressing processing and safety issues of industrially relevant materials. The behavior of bubbles or collections of bubbles in yield stress materials is of particular interest in relation to hazardous nuclear waste, which can generate and entrap large volumes of flammable gas. Improved insight into the behavior of bubbles in such materials can aid in the safety and efficiency of processing such materials. A finite element code has been developed to examine the behavior of single bubbles from a fluid mechanics perspective and the computational issues associated with visco-plastic materials. Further studies will then be conducted for two- and multiple-bubble systems. The needs for this project are simply a high-performance computational machine with a C++ compiler.
Project Details
Project type
Exploratory Research
Start Date
2000-05-24
End Date
2000-11-24
Status
Closed
Released Data Link
Team
Principal Investigator