Quantitative Analysis of the Upwelling Behavior of Methane Bubbles in
Nature and Numerical Simulations
Abstract
In this study, we conducted a quantitative analysis of the behavior of
ascending methane bubbles, which were filmed at two natural gas seep
sites and reproduced by numerical simulations using two-dimensional
motion analysis software. The targeted sites were located in the
southwest and northeast of Sado Island at the eastern margin of the Sea
of Japan, where methane bubbles with and without a methane hydrate (MH)
layer were observed, respectively. The simulations comprising gas
bubbles and MH bubbles spouting from a nozzle in the computational
domain filled with pure water were generated to assess the validity of
the image analysis for situ-data, while the numerical models and
physical properties were utilized for current two-phase (gas-liquid)
simulations. The rising velocity, size, circumference, circularity, and
maximum diameter of methane bubbles were examined to understand the
effects of the MH layer on the statistical and stochastic features of
ascending methane bubbles. Based on the statistics of the aforementioned
variables, gas bubbles had a higher rising velocity and smaller
circularity than MH bubbles when the bubble sizes were identical.
Furthermore, the stochastic analysis indicated that the circularity of
the MH bubble was uniquely determined by the size of the bubble owing to
the more rigid skin of the MH bubbles compared to that of the gas
bubbles.