CFD simulation of silicone oil in a glass tube subjected to axial accelerations. The problem was modeled using acceleration data from a space station experiment, which was applied to the model using a custom java macro which read the time varying accelerations from a text file. The model was solved as an axisymmetric problem (mirrored in the video for visualization purposes) using the volume of fluids (VOF) solver in STAR-CCM+ v3.02, with all relevant properties given in the video.
Qualitatively the results were similar to the experimental results, but since I was doing this for fun I didn't have the time to finish experimenting with the model. A macro was written to try and track the center point of the free surface (using the volume fraction within the cell at the interface), but it wasn't working properly. The domain of the problem was also insufficient, and needed to be extended.
