1988/02/01 by In Seok Kang, I. S. Kang, L. G. Leal +1 · 79 citations
Engineering · Materials Science · #Bubble #Classical mechanics #Compressibility #Conservative vector field #Dissipation #Drag #Drag coefficient #Flow (mathematics) #Fluid Dynamics and Mixing #Mechanics #Parasitic drag #Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows #Physics #Reynolds number #Thermodynamics #Turbulence #Ultrasound and Cavitation Phenomena #Vortex #Vorticity
paper · doi:10.1063/1.866852
published in The Physics of Fluids 31(2), 233-237 (AIP Publishing)
openalex publication_date 1988/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
The drag coefficient CD=48/R for a spherical bubble in a uniform streaming flow at high Reynolds number, which was first obtained via a dissipation method by Levich [Zh. Eksp. Teor. Fiz. 19, 18 (1949)], is rederived here by direct integration of the normal stress over the bubble surface. The present study also shows that the drag coefficient up to O(R−1) depends only on the O(1) vorticity distribution right on the bubble surface, and is independent of the vorticity distribution in the fluid. Therefore the drag coefficient up to O(R−1) is completely determined by the irrotational flow solution, which is perfectly consistent with the dissipation method.