We use a three dimensional hydrodynamical code to simulate the effect of energy injection on cooling flows in the intracluster medium .
Specifically , we compare a simulation of a 10 ^ { 15 } M _ { \odot } cluster with radiative cooling only , with a second simulation in which thermal energy is injected 31 kpc off-centre , over 64 kpc ^ { 3 } at a rate of 4.9 \times 10 ^ { 44 } \hbox { ergs } \hbox { ~ { } s } ^ { -1 } for 50 Myr .
The heat injection forms a hot , low density bubble which quickly rises , dragging behind it material from the cluster core .
The rising bubble pushes with it a shell of gas which expands and cools .
We find the appearance of the bubble in X-ray temperature and luminosity to be in good qualitative agreement with recent Chandra observations of cluster cores .
Toward the end of the simulation , at 600 Myr , the displaced gas begins to fall back toward the core , and the subsequent turbulence is very efficient at mixing the low and high entropy gas .
The result is that the cooling flow is disrupted for up to \sim 50 Myr after the injection of energy ceases .
Thus , this mechanism provides a very efficient method for regulating cooling flows , if the injection events occur with a 1:1 duty cycle .