Avalanche dynamics in fluid imbibition near the depinning transition

TL;DR

This paper investigates the critical avalanche behavior of fluid interfaces in disordered media as the mean velocity approaches zero, revealing power-law distributions and critical phenomena through scaling analysis and simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a scaling framework for avalanche statistics in fluid imbibition near the depinning transition, supported by numerical simulations.

Findings

Avalanche sizes and durations follow power-law distributions near the critical point.

The critical point occurs at zero mean velocity, indicating a depinning transition.

Numerical simulations confirm the scaling predictions.

Abstract

We study avalanche dynamics and local activity of forced-flow imbibition fronts in disordered media. We focus on the front dynamics as the mean velocity $\bar{v}$ of the interface is decreased and the pinning state is approached. Scaling arguments allow us to obtain the statistics of avalanche sizes and durations, which become power-law distributed due to the existence of a critical point at $\bar{v}= 0$. Results are compared with phase-field numerical simulations.