The collision efficiency of small bubbles with large particles

•The collision between a small bubble and a larger settling particle was studied.•The study was focused primarily on collision efficiency.•A new simple relation for efficiency estimation was proposed.•The relation requires knowledge of particle and bubble velocities.•The agreement of experimental and calculated data is evident.

Bubble–particle interactions play an important role in many technological processes, e.g., in flotation. Although mineral flotation involves fine particles, this work focuses on the interactions between a small bubble and larger spherical particle and determining their collision efficiency. Based on the theoretical and experimental work, a simple relation for estimating the collision efficiency is proposed. The calculated efficiencies are compared to a large set of experimental data and are found to be in excellent agreement.

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