Driven interfaces in disordered media: determination of universality classes from experimental data

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new method to identify the universality class of moving interfaces in disordered media from experimental snapshots, bridging the gap between theory and real-world data.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel approach for determining universality classes directly from experimental interface profiles, applicable to porous media flows.

Findings

Method accurately identifies universality classes in known models

Successfully applied to experimental fluid flow data

Enhances understanding of interface dynamics in porous media

Abstract

While there have been important theoretical advances in understanding the universality classes of interfaces moving in porous media, the developed tools cannot be directly applied to experiments. Here we introduce a method that can identify the universality class from snapshots of the interface profile. We test the method on discrete models whose universality class is well known, and use it to identify the universality class of interfaces obtained in experiments on fluid flow in porous media.