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Three-dimensional viscous fingering of miscible fluids in porous media

Tetsuya Suekane1,*, Jei Ono1, Akimitsu Hyodo1, and Yuichiro Nagatsu2

  • 1Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology, 4259-G3-31, Nagatsuta, Midori-ku, Yokohama, 226-8502, Japan
  • 2Chemical Engineering, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, 2-24-16 Naka-cho, Koganei, Tokyo 184-8588, Japan

  • *tsuekane@es.titech.ac.jp
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Phys. Rev. Fluids 2, 103902 – Published 13 October, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.2.103902

Abstract

Viscous fingering is a flow instability that is induced at the displacement front when a less-viscous fluid (LVF) displaces a more-viscous fluid (MVF). Because of the opaque nature of porous media, most experimental investigations of the structure of viscous fingering and its development in time have been limited to two-dimensional porous media or Hele–Shaw cells. In this study, we investigate the three-dimensional characteristics of viscous fingering in porous media using a microfocused x-ray computer tomography (CT) scanner. Similar to two-dimensional experiments, characteristic events such as tip-splitting, shielding, and coalescence were observed in three-dimensional viscous fingering as well. With an increase in the Péclet number at a fixed viscosity ratio, M, the fingers appearing on the interface tend to be fine; however, the locations of the tips of the fingers remain the same for the same injected volume of the LVF. The finger extensions increase in proportion to ln M, and the number of fingers emerging at the initial interface increases with M. This fact agrees qualitatively with linear stability analyses. Within the fingers, the local concentration of NaI, which is needed for the x-ray CT scanner, linearly decreases, whereas it sharply decreases at the tips of the fingers. A locally high Péclet number as well as unsteady motions in lateral directions may enhance the dispersion at the tips of the fingers. As the viscosity ratio increases, the efficiency of each sweep monotonically decreases and reaches an asymptotic state; in addition, the degree of mixing increases with the viscosity ratio. For high flow rates, the asymptotic value of the sweep efficiency is low for high viscosity ratios, while there is no clear dependence of the asymptotic value on the Péclet number.

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Phys. Rev. Fluids 2, 103902– Published 13 October, 2017
  • Received 21 July 2017

©2017 American Physical Society

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