Jan Siemer (ZARM), Devaraj van der Meer (University of Twente), Patricia Vega Martínez (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), Javier Rodríguez Rodríguez (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid), und Michael Heseding (ZARM) in front of the drop capsule (from left to right) in July 2016. Not in the picture: Torsten Lutz (ZARM) and Matthias Sperl (DLR-MP).
The diffusion-driven growth of a gas bubble inside a supersaturated solution of gas in water is an important process in many industrial applications. Each single bubble should grow unimpeded until it reaches the region of water depleted of gas by other bubbles. However, the study of that phenomenon is hindered under gravity as diffusion-driven growth is interrupted by buoyancy. In the experiments in the drop tower, a cloud of such bubbles is initiated inside a supersaturated solution of carbon dioxide in water by spark-induced cavitation. The time evolution of the bubble cloud is afterwards monitored with highspeed cameras. The microgravity experiment shows that the cloud of bubbles can be studied for much longer times of over a second; the detailed analysis of the recoreded data is in progress.