This work reports the first part of a series of numerical simulations carried out in order to improve knowledge of the forces acting on a sphere embedded in accelerated flows at finite Reynolds number, Re. Among these forces added mass and history effects are particularly important in order to determine accurately particle and bubble trajectories in real flows. To compute these hydrodynamic forces and more generally to study spatially or temporally accelerated flows around a sphere, the full Navier–Stokes equations expressed in velocity–pressure variables are solved by using a finite-volume approach. Computations are carried out over the range 0.1 ≤ Re ≤ 300 for flows around both a rigid sphere and an inviscid spherical bubble, and a systematic comparison of the flows around these two kinds of bodies is presented.Steady uniform flow is first considered in order to test the accuracy of the simulations and to serve as a reference case for comparing with accelerated situations. Axisymmetric straining flow which constitutes the simplest spatially accelerated flow in which a sphere can be embedded is then studied. It is shown that owing to the viscous boundary condition on the body as well as to vorticity transport properties, the presence of the strain modifies deeply the distribution of vorticity around the sphere. This modification has spectacular consequences in the case of a rigid sphere because it influences strongly the conditions under which separation occurs as well as the characteristics of the separated region. Another very original feature of the axisymmetric straining flow lies in the vortex-stretching mechanism existing in this situation. In a converging flow this mechanism acts to reduce vorticity in the wake of the sphere. In contrast when the flow is divergent, vorticity produced at the surface of the sphere tends to grow indefinitely as it is transported downstream. It is shown that in the case where such a diverging flow extends to infinity a Kelvin–Helmholtz instability may occur in the wake.Computations of the hydrodynamic force show that the effects of the strain increase rapidly with the Reynolds number. At high Reynolds numbers the total drag is dramatically modified and the evaluation of the pressure contribution shows that the sphere undergoes an added mass force whose coefficient remains the same as in inviscid flow or in creeping flow, i.e. CM = ½, whatever the Reynolds number. Changes found in vorticity distribution around the rigid sphere also affect the viscous drag, which is markedly increased (resp. decreased) in converging (resp. diverging) flows at high Reynolds numbers.

This work is an experimental study of the deformation and breakup of a bubble in a turbulent flow. A special facility was designed to obtain intense turbulence without significant mean flow. The experiments were performed under microgravity conditions to ensure that turbulence was the only cause of bubble deformation. A scalar parameter, characteristic of this deformation, was obtained by video processing of high-speed movies. The time evolution and spectral representation of this scalar parameter showed the dynamical characteristics of bubble deformation. The signatures of the eigenmodes of oscillation predicted by the linear theory were clearly observed and the predominance of the second mode was proved. In addition, numerical simulations were performed by computing the response of a damped oscillator to the measured turbulence forcing. Simulations and experiments were found to be in good agreement both qualitatively, from visual inspections of the signals, and quantitatively, from a statistical analysis. The role of bubble dynamics in the deformation process has been clarified. On the one hand, the time response of the bubble controls the maximum amount of energy which can be extracted from each turbulent eddy. On the other hand, the viscous damping limits the energy that the bubble can accumulate during its fluctuating deformation. Moreover, two breakup mechanisms have been identified. One mechanism results from the balance between two opposing dominant forces, and the other from a resonance oscillation. A new parameter, the mean efficiency coefficient, has been introduced to take into account the various aspects of bubble dynamics. Used together with the Weber number, this parameter allows the prediction of the occurrence of these two mechanisms. Finally, the influence of the residence time of the bubble on the statistics of the deformation has been analysed and quantified.

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