Oil–water phase inversion
A 3D CFD simulation of the gravity- and buoyancy-driven inversion of two immiscible fluids with different densities.
- Industry
- Research & Process Engineering
- Physics
- Multiphase flow - Gravity - Buoyancy
- Platform
- HPC cluster - approximately 90 CPU cores
3D oil-water phase inversion simulation with Fugu
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Objective
Demonstrate Fugu’s ability to simulate a strongly transient phase inversion between water and oil, driven by their density difference under gravity.
Simulation setup
The three-dimensional domain initially contains an unstable arrangement of two immiscible fluids. Because water is denser than oil, buoyancy forces cause the water to move downward while the oil rises, progressively exchanging their positions.
- 3D domain discretised on a 128 × 128 × 128 grid
- 2,097,152 computational cells
- Two immiscible fluids: water and oil
- Approximately 90 CPU cores
Results & insights
The simulation captures the large deformation of the oil–water interface and the complex transient flow structures generated as both phases exchange positions. The final evolution tends towards a stable configuration, with the denser water below the lighter oil.