The water stream carries the gaseous oxygen thru the orifice plate into a region of extremely high turbulence where the oxygen dissolves into the water. The high turbulence region is the result of an abrupt change in velocity from the orifice plate to the full diameter of the pipe line. With the inline mixer, gas diffusion into the liquid is extremely efficient, several orders of magnitude greater than indicated by a mass transfer analysis. This high diffusion rate can be attributed to several physical mechanisms if we assume that the immediate gas-liquid interface is almost instantaneously saturated with the gas. The smearing of the gas into the liquid as it is drawn through the orifice plate in a thin gaseous film directly into the high turbulence region.
Bubbles formed are then of extremely small diameter which give a high surface area to volume ratio.
The distortion of the bubbles that a-re formed by the high shear rates in the liquid turbulent region. It can be shown that any distortion of a bubble changes the surface area to volume ratio. Any change in surface to volume ratio will force the gas saturated interface of a bubble into the water volume establishing mechanical mixing rather than mass diffusion transfer . Oxygen levels in the water of about 40 ppm at 80 degrees Fahrenheit. The solubility of gases in water can be described by Henry's law.