Numerical modeling of bubble-induced flow patterns in champagne glasses

Very recently, driven by glassmakers and champagne houses, attention has been paid to the way to control effervescence and bubble nucleation. It was demonstrated that ascending bubbles act like many swirling motion generators in champagne glasses. It is the reason why a numerical modeling of flow dynamics induced by the effervescence in a glass of champagne has been carried out for the first time using the finite volume method by Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The paper aims to discuss these issues.

In order to define source terms for flow regime and to reproduce accurately the nucleation process at the origin of effervescence, specific subroutines for the gaseous phase have been added to the main numerical model. These subroutines allow the modeling of bubbles behavior based on semi-empirical formulas relating to bubble diameter and velocity or mass transfer evolutions.

Details and development of the steps of modeling are presented in this paper, showing a good agreement between the results obtained by CFD simulations in a reference case of those from laser tomography and Particle Image Velocimetry experiments, validating the present model.

A numerical modeling of flow dynamics induced by the effervescence in a glass of champagne has been carried out for the first time using the finite volume method by CFD.