A review of bubble break-up

Pengbo Chu; James Finch; Ghislain Bournival; Seher Ata; Christopher Hamlett; Robert J Pugh

doi:10.1016/j.cis.2019.05.010

A review of bubble break-up

Adv Colloid Interface Sci. 2019 Aug:270:108-122. doi: 10.1016/j.cis.2019.05.010. Epub 2019 May 31.

Authors

Pengbo Chu¹, James Finch¹, Ghislain Bournival², Seher Ata³, Christopher Hamlett⁴, Robert J Pugh⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mining and Materials Engineering, McGill University, 3610 Rue University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
² School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
³ School of Minerals and Energy Resources Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: s.ata@unsw.edu.au.
⁴ Department of Physics and Mathematics, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK.
⁵ Department of Physics and Mathematics, Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, UK. Electronic address: bobpugh42@gmail.com.

PMID: 31202129
DOI: 10.1016/j.cis.2019.05.010

Abstract

The coalescence and break-up of bubbles are important steps in many industrial processes. To date, most of the literature has been focussed on the coalescence process which has been studied using high speed cinematographic techniques. However, bubble break-up is equally important and requires further research. This review essentially details the break-up process and initially summarizes the different types of bubble deformation processes which lead to break-up. Break-up is considered in high and low turbulent (pseudo-static) conditions and the effect of fluctuations and shear forces on the break-up is reviewed. Different mechanisms of break-up are discussed including shearing-off, coalescence induced pitching and impact pinching following air entrapment. Also, the influence of bubble size, interfacial stability, and surfactant on break-up are reviewed and a summary of recent experimental techniques presented. Finally, the break-up process which occurs in micro-fluidics is summarized.

Keywords: Air-water interface; Bubble; Bubble break-up.

Publication types

Review