Modelling Coalescence of a Particle Laden Bubble with a Bare Bubble in Steel Bath

摘要

The phenomenon of bubble coalescence is encountered along with the interaction of hydrophobic particles in metallurgical industries and flotation processes. In the context of steel making industries where inert gas bubbles are used to remove inclusions from steel, coalescence of bubbles was expected to show an effect on the stability of the particles or agglomerates at the bubble interface. This was verified by carrying out experiments using a cold model with polymeric low density polyethylene particles which are hydrophobic in nature. The effect of particle size and particle loading on coalescence of two equal sized bubbles, one bare and the other coated with particles has been investigated. It has been found that individual particles remained stable to bubble surface oscillations, however, agglomerated particles were unstable and their detachment had a dependency in particle size and loading fraction on the bubble.