Viscous fingering in miscible, immiscible and reactive fluids

TL;DR

This paper uses the Lattice Boltzmann method to study viscous fingering phenomena in Hele-Shaw flows, analyzing instability onset, interface properties, and the effects of reactive processes on fluid interfaces.

Contribution

It introduces a simulation approach for viscous fingering in miscible, immiscible, and reactive fluids, highlighting the impact of reactions on interface dynamics.

Findings

Reactive processes sharpen the interface similarly to surface tension.

The study characterizes the instability onset and interface growth.

Simulation results align with experimental observations.

Abstract

With the Lattice Boltzmann method (using the BGK approximation) we investigate the dynamics of Hele-Shaw flow under conditions corresponding to various experimental systems. We discuss the onset of the instability (dispersion relation), the static properties (characterization of the interface) and the dynamic properties (growth of the mixing zone) of simulated Hele-Shaw systems. We examine the role of reactive processes (between the two fluids) and we show that they have a sharpening effect on the interface similar to the effect of surface tension.