In oil extraction industry, efficiency of water-oil separators for offshore production is crucial. The aim of this work is to develop numerical tools able to model such systems in operation. The physical phenomena involved are mainly : the presence of an interface between two immiscible fluids, the viscosity of these fluids, and surface tension effects. Corresponding physical and numerical models have been implemented in the frame of the SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) numerical method developed at L.M.F.. The main features of SPH are : particle-based method (mesh-free), weakly-compressible approach, and explicit resolution. To improve two-phase flows modeling, classical formulation of SPH has been extended by two different approaches, developed simultaneously. Each of these has been validated separately. Additional physical effects have been implemented using shared models which validations have been performed on several test cases such as Poiseuille flows, Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities, flooding or bubble evolutions in liquids. The latter has allowed comparison to the design tools used in the SAIPEM S.A. engineering process, through the validation versus Stoke's law. Eventually, the method capabilities are illustrated on the water-oil separation in a separator of simplified geometry.
