Experiments on the rise of air bubbles in clean viscous liquids

A number of new experiments have been performed on the rise of air bubbles in clean mixtures of distilled water and pure, reagent grade, glycerine covering a range of the relevant parameter, the Morton number, Mo = g nu(4) rho(3)/sigma(3), of 10(13). Here g is the acceleration due to gravity, nu the kinematic viscosity, rho the density and sigma the surface tension of the mixture. In these careful measurements several scaling regimes have been found that have not been discussed before in the extensive literature on the subject. The transitions between these regimes have been delineated and attempts made to discuss the dynamical processes that might be important in each of them.