Modelling of underwater bubble plumes and gas dissolution with an Eulerian-Lagrangian CFD model

Underwater bubble plumes emerge from subsea releases of gas. They can be studied by mathematical models. Here an Eulerian-Lagrangian CFD model is presented. It accounts for relevant physics including buoyancy, turbulence, gas expansion and gas dissolution. The model is compared against three sets of experiments. There is consistency between model and experiments. Special focus is given to the effect of gas dissolution. It is demonstrated how the choice of mass transfer coefficient strongly affects the amount of gas dissolution. Since it is not apparent which mass transfer correlation is applicable, it is argued that more experimental data is needed.