On the growth of a non-ideal gas bubble in a solvent-polymer solution

A model for the growth of an ideal and a non-ideal spherical gas bubble in a quiescent viscous liquid is presented. The growth of the bubble is assumed to be controlled by both mass transfer and viscous forces. Using the integral method, the differential momentum and binary mass balances were transformed into ordinary differential equations, which were numerically solved. Some analytical solutions for simple cases are also presented. The relevance of this work to the process of polymer melt devolatilization is discussed.