Buoyancy segregation suppresses viscous fingering in horizontal displacements in a porous layer

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that buoyancy-induced segregation in horizontal porous layers stabilizes fluid displacement, effectively suppressing viscous fingering even with minimal density differences, through self-similar flow and stability analysis.

Contribution

It reveals that buoyancy segregation stabilizes horizontal displacements in porous media, preventing viscous fingering regardless of viscosity ratio or density contrast.

Findings

Buoyancy segregation leads to stable, self-similar flow.

Viscous fingering is suppressed due to buoyancy effects.

Stability persists for any viscosity ratio and small density differences.

Abstract

We consider the axisymmetric displacement of an ambient fluid by a second input fluid of lower density and lower viscosity in a horizontal porous layer. If the two fluids have been vertically segregated by buoyancy, the flow becomes self-similar with the input fluid preferentially flowing near the upper boundary. We show that this axisymmetric self-similar flow is stable to angular-dependent perturbations for any viscosity ratio. The Saffman-Taylor instability is suppressed due to the buoyancy segregation of the fluids. The radial extent of the segregated current is inversely proportional to the viscosity ratio. This horizontal extension of the intrusion eliminates the discontinuity in the pressure gradient between the fluids associated with the viscosity contrast. Hence, at late times viscous fingering is shut down even for arbitrarily small density differences. The stability is confirmed through numerical integration of a coupled problem for the interface shape and the pressure gradient, and through complementary asymptotic analysis, which predicts the decay rate for each mode. The results are extended to anisotropic and vertically heterogeneous layers. The interface may have steep shock-like regions but the flow is always stable when the fluids have been segregated by buoyancy, as in a uniform layer.