Computational fluid dynamics simulation of buoyant mixing of miscible fluids in a tilted tube

Abstract

Buoyancy-driven flows and mixing of fluids with different densities occur frequently both in nature and as part of industrial processes within chemical and petroleum engineering. This work investigates the buoyant exchange flow of two miscible fluids in a long tube with closed ends at varying tilt angles using OpenFOAM. The study focuses on the evolution of the concentration field and front velocities of the mixing zone at different inclinations. Numerical results based on a miscible solver agree with previous experiments and direct numerical simulations. Treating the fluids instead as immiscible with no surface tension leads to unrealistically high front velocities at intermediate inclinations.