Plugs in rough capillary tubes: enhanced dependence of motion on plug length

TL;DR

This paper investigates how azimuthal roughness in capillary tubes significantly amplifies the dependence of plug motion on length, extending classical models to account for roughness effects and explaining experimental catch-up phenomena.

Contribution

It introduces a theoretical framework for understanding how azimuthal roughness affects plug speed dependence on length, extending Bretherton's work to rough tubes.

Findings

Roughness increases the decay length of plug shape relaxation.

Plug speed dependence on length is significantly enhanced in rough tubes.

The mechanism explains observed catch-up effects in experiments.

Abstract

We discuss the creeping motion of plugs of negligible viscosity in rough capillary tubes filled with carrier fluids. This extends Bretherton's research work on the infinite-length bubble motion in a cylindrical or smooth tube for small capillary numbers Ca. We first derive the asymptotic dependence of the plug speed on the finite length in the smooth tube case. This dependence on length is exponentially small, with a decay length much shorter than the tube radius R. Then we discuss the effect of azimuthal roughness of the tube on the plug speed. The tube roughness leads to an unbalanced capillary pressure and a carrier fluid flux in the azimuthal plane. This flux controls the relaxation of the plug shape to its infinite-length limit. For long-wavelength roughness, we find that the above decay length is much longer in the rough tube, and even becomes comparable to the tube radius R in some cases. This implies a much-enhanced dependence of the plug speed on the plug length. This mechanism may explain the catch-up effect seen experimentally.