Parametric study of LES subgrid terms in a turbulent phase separation flow

Abstract The present work provides an a priori estimate of the specific LES subgrid terms occurring in the filtered 1-fluid Navier–Stokes equations that model the dynamics of turbulent two-phase flows involving separated phases. Three-dimensional simulations of a water/oil phase separation in a cubic cavity are carried out without explicit turbulent modeling. A parametric study is investigated for various surface tension coefficients, density and dynamic viscosity ratios. The numerical results obtained with these parametric simulations are then explicitly filtered to quantify the relative magnitude of each LES subgrid terms. A classification of these subgrid terms is finally provided for the phase inversion configuration.