Two-interface and thin filament approximation in Hele--Shaw channel flow

TL;DR

This paper derives a second-order thin filament model for Hele-Shaw channel flow that captures the evolution of a viscous fluid filament, including transverse flow effects, and validates it against full two-interface simulations.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel second-order thin filament model incorporating transverse flow effects for Hele-Shaw flow, improving stability analysis and simulation accuracy.

Findings

Second-order model regularizes the Saffman--Taylor instability.

Numerical simulations agree with full two-interface level-set computations.

Solutions evolve into a bubble with increasing radius and decreasing thickness.

Abstract

When a viscous fluid partially fills a Hele--Shaw channel, and is pushed by a pressure difference, the fluid interface is unstable due to the Saffman--Taylor instability. We consider the evolution of a fluid region of finite extent, bounded between two interfaces, in the limit the interfaces are close, that is, when the fluid region is a thin liquid filament separating two gases of different pressure. In this limit, we derive a second-order `thin filament' model that describes the normal velocity of the filament centreline, and evolution of the filament thickness, as functions of the thickness, centreline curvature and their derivatives. We show that the second-order terms in this model, that include the effect of transverse flow along the filament, are necessary to regularise the instability. Numerical simulation of the thin filament model is shown to be in accordance with level-set computations of the complete two-interface model. Solutions ultimately evolve to form a bubble of rapidly increasing radius and decreasing thickness.