Particle-induced viscous fingering

Abstract eng:
Viscous fingering instability arises when a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous one inside porous media. We introduce a novel fingering instability in the absence of the destabilizing viscosity ratio, when particles are added to the viscous invading fluid in a radial source flow inside a Hele-Shaw cell. The fingering regimes are characterized experimentally (from a stable regime to weak and band fingering) for varying particle volume fractions and ratios of the gap thickness to particle diameter. The mechanism of particle-induced fingering is rationalized based on the particle migration towards the channel centerline, and the transition between weak and band fingering regimes is theoretically resolved based on the rate of particle aggregation near the interface.

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