Experiment and modeling of lift force acting on single high Reynolds number bubbles rising in linear shear flow

•The lift force on single bubbles rising in a linear shear flow is investigated.•The linear shear flow is generated by a specially designed water channel.•For small bubbles, the lift coefficient CL matches data in the literature.•Present data of CL are effectively estimated by the newly derived model. The lift force acting on single bubbles rising in a downward linear shear flow is measured experimentally. The flow is generated by a 90° sharply bent rectangular water channel, with uniformly distributed vanes installed directly after the corner, and the linear velocity profile is validated by particle image velocimetry. In the flow, single contaminated bubbles with a volume equivalent diameter d ranging from 2 mm to 20 mm are tested, corresponding to a Reynolds number Re based on d and relative velocity of the bubble in the quasi-steady state from 440 to 7200. The experimental results of the lift coefficient CL at d