Morphology of contorted fluid structures

Abstract

Multiphase flows reveal contorted fluid structures which cannot be described in terms of drop/bubble diameter distribution. Here we use a morphological descriptor which originates from the field of heterogeneous materials that was proved to be nicely tailored for characterizing the microstructure of e.g. porous media. It is based on the Minkowski Functionals – an erudite expression which simply designates the integrated volume, surface, mean and Gaussian curvatures – of all surfaces parallel to the liquid–gas interface. We apply this framework to different multiphase flow systems and prove that the Minkowski Functionals are effective for providing insights into their morphodynamical behavior.