Two-phase flow
In fluid mechanics, two phase flow refers to a system containing gas and liquid with a meniscus separating the two phases. The most commonly considered fluids are air and water.
Everyday examples include
Several features make two phase flow an interesting and challenging branch of fluid mechanics:
- surface tension makes all dynamical problems nonlinear (see Weber number)
- In the case of air and water at Standard Temperature and Pressure, the density of the two phases differs by a factor of about 1000
- In many problems, the air is compressible and the water almost perfectly incompressible