Direct Numerical Simulation of Homogeneous Turbulent Shear Flow Containing Bubbles

Direct numerical simulations of homogeneous shear turbulent flows containing deformable bubbles were carried out for clarifying the mechanism of drag reduction by microbubbles. The results show that presence of bubbles can suppress or enhance the development of turbulence depending on condition. The dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic energy is always increased by bubbles, while the production rate can be either increased or decreased depending on the turbulent and shear Reynolds numbers. As a result, the growth rate of turbulent kinetic energy can be either increased or decreased by bubbles depending on conditions. It was shown that the production rate tends to decrease at smaller shear Reynolds number, at larger turbulent Reynolds number, and at larger Weber number. Based on the results, a hypothetical model to explain the dependency on the Reynolds numbers has been proposed.