Champagne Helps Researchers Better Understand Energy Efficiency

By Peter R - 22 Dec '14 14:41PM
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Bubbling champagne may have just uncorked the secret to designing efficient energy systems.

Researchers in Japan simulated bubble nucleation (formation of a new structure) at the molecular level with the country's most powerful computer. According to Business Standard, the team's research cue is the formation of bubbles in champagne when the pressure is removed after uncorking. Larger bubbles are formed even as smaller bubbles disappear, a phenomenon know as Ostwald Ripening.

"When the pressure of a liquid is suddenly reduced, bubbles appear. After the formation of bubbles, their coarsening takes place, i.e., larger bubbles grow at the expense of smaller ones. This is known as Ostwald ripening. It is commonly observed in many systems such as spin systems, foams, metallic alloys, and so forth," researchers wrote, adding that the phenomenon is only limitedly understood by classical theories.

Researchers sought to understood how the phenomenon in bubble systems, commonly seen in turbines using boilers to covert water to steam.

The team's effort involved simulation of nearly 700 million particles to form several thousands of bubbles, and observe their movements. They found that classical theories did indeed hold good for bubble systems as well.

The simulation exercise itself is being seen as a success as it involved parallel simulations of several particles simultaneously, requiring the use of 4,000 processors on the K Computer at the research institute RIKEN in Japan, Deccan Chronicle reported.

A better understand of the Ostwald phenomenon can help designed energy efficient turbines and systems. 

The study's findings have been published in The Journal of Chemical Physics. 

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