Numerical simulation of bubble growth in a supersaturated solution

•A Volume of Fluid based approach to model growth of a pre-existing bubble in a supersaturated solution is presented.•Transport of the dissolved gas is modelled using Compressive Continuous Species Transfer model.•A continuum-field representation, previously developed for evaporation, of source terms is implemented.•The bubble growth predicted using Sherwood number based correlation and Ficks 1st law are compared.•The effect bubble growth on its rise velocity is also investigated. In this paper, a Volume of Fluid (VOF) based approach to simulate the growth of a pre-existing bubble in a supersaturated solution is developed and implemented in OpenFOAMⓇ. The model incorporates the Compressive Continuous Species Transfer approach to describe the transport of dissolved gas and surface tension is treated using the Sharp Surface Force method. The driving force for bubble growth is defined using Fick’s 1st law and a Sherwood number based correlation. The source terms for the governing equations are implemented by extending the work by Hardt and Wondra, J. Comp. Phys. 227 (2008) 5871–5895. The predictions of the proposed solver is compared against theoretical models for bubble growth in supersaturated solutions. The effect of spurious currents, which are generated while modelling surface tension, on bubble growth is also investigated. The proposed approach is used to model the growth of a rising bubble in the supersaturated solution.