title: Phenomenological description of phase inversion.
abstract: We propose an extended Ginzburg-Landau model for a description of the ambivalence region associated with the phenomenon of phase inversion observed in dispersed water-oil flow through a pipe. In analogy to the classical mean-field theory of phase transitions, it is shown that a good quantitative representation of the ambivalence region is obtained by using the injected phase volume fraction and a friction factor as the appropriate physical parameters.
authors.affiliation: J.M. Burgerscentrum, Laboratory for Aero- and Hydrodynamics, Delft University of Technology, Leeghwaterstraat 21, 2628 CA Delft, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Piela
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ooms
authors.forename: J V
authors.initials: JV
authors.lastname: Sengers