The effect of inhomogeneous mobility on immiscible Hele- Shaw flow

Abstract eng:
We investigate immiscible radial displacement in a Hele-Shaw cell with an inhomogeneous mobility using two coupled high resolution numerical methods. A Cartesian periodic perturbation in the Hele-Shaw plate separation gives rise to an inhomogeneous mobility, which we explore in a high capillary number regime. Under Cartesian periodic geometry, secondary tip splitting instabilities are significantly altered and different fingering structures are formed around an initially symmetric interface. Viscous fingers are sharpened when aligned with the periodic grid, as the fingers travel in regions of high permeability that accelerate the finger fronts. Fingers displacing at 45◦ to the axes show close resemblance to their uniform cell counterparts due to the homogeneity of the plate perturbation at the length scale of the interfacial displacement.

• Export as: BibTeX | MARC | MARCXML | DC | EndNote | NLM | RefWorks
• Add to your basket