Full 3D Simulations of Two-Phase Core-Annular Flow in Horizontal Pipe Using Level Set Method

Simulating core-annular flow is an important task in the oil industry. Many attempts have been made to simulate vertical upflow or downflow. However, in the case of horizontal pipes, simulation is likely to succeed when the effect of gravity is ignored, because the motion of the fluid is no longer axisymmetric. This gravity-ignoring simulation is acceptable when the density of oil is almost similar to that of water, but in most cases, density-matching does not occur in reality. A few attempts have been made to simulate flow in horizontal pipes (Ooms et al. in Phys Fluids 25:032102, 2013), but these attempts used 2D cross-sectional simulation or 3D simulation of a specific moment. This paper discusses several results for core-annular flow in horizontal pipes with gravity effect, using full 3D simulation. Using a level set method, we express the interface of core-annular flow and compare different cases with different parameters.