Experimental Evidence for Scaling Laws in Bubble Plumes

This paper presents experimental evidence regarding the behavior of bubble plumes in two tanks of different size, under non -stratified conditions. The smaller vessel has been geometrically scaled down from the larger one with a relation 1:10. Velocity measurements were performed in both tanks with acoustic sensors (ADVs) and timeaveraged velocity profiles obtained at both scales were compared. Th is comparison was used to support a methodology to scale vertical and horizontal (radial) distances in bubble plumes, while allowing for the simulation of portions of the reservoirs . The bubble-slip velocity and a length scale D were determined as the relevant scales in the analysis. Previous scaling of bubble plumes, based on the preservation of the number H M (Asaeda and Imberger, 1993) and the use of the ratio diffuser