Rotary Entrainment in Stratified Gas-Liquid Layers: An Experimental Study

Abstract

Rotary entrainment is a phenomenon in which the interface of two immiscible fluids is subjected to external flux in the form of rotation. Present work reports the experimental study on rotary motion of a horizontal cylinder between the interface of air and water to observe the penetration of gas inside the liquid. Experiments have been performed to establish entrainment of air mass in water alongside the cylindrical surface. The movement of tracer and seeded particles has been tracked to determine the speed and path of the entrained air inside water. Simplified particle image velocimetry technique has been used to trace the movement of particles/tracers injected inside the entrainment zone and suspended beads have been used to replicate the particle movement with respect to time in order to determine the fluid flow dynamics along the cylinder. A thorough experimental analysis of air-water rotary entrainment phenomenon and its entrainment trajectories have been presented keeping in interest the extent to which these can be intermixed.