Three-dimensional bubble field resolution using synthetic aperture imaging: application to a plunging jet

A methodology for resolving three-dimensional (3D) bubble fields using 3D synthetic aperture imaging (SA imaging) is developed and applied to the bubbly flows induced by a turbulent circular plunging jet. 3D SA imaging involves capturing entirely in-focus images in an array of cameras with multiple viewpoints, then reprojecting the images into the measurement volume and combining them post capture. The result is a stack of synthetically refocused images that span the measurement volume with each refocused image having a narrow focus on a particular plane. In this paper, bubble shadow images are captured by projecting diffuse backlight onto the measurement volume. 3D SA imaging is ideally suited to investigate optically dense multiphase flows due to the ability to reconstruct volumes that contain partial occlusions. Instantaneous bubble sizes and locations in the plunging jet bubble fields are extracted from the volumes using two feature extraction algorithms and presented for various jet heights. The data are compared with existing literature on bubble penetration depth and size distributions. A scaling law for the integrated air concentration as a function of depth below the free-surface is proposed. Coupled with scaling laws for a parameter describing the radius of the bubble cone and radial concentration profiles, this new scaling law can be used to determine the entire air concentration profile given a minimal number of single-point measurements.