Fluctuations and pinch-offs observed in viscous fingering

Moore, M. G. and Juel, A. and Burgess, J. M. and Swinney, H. L. (2002) Fluctuations and pinch-offs observed in viscous fingering. In: 7th Experimental Chaos Conference, 26-29 August 2002, San Diego.

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Abstract

Our experiments on viscous (Saffman-Taylor) fingering in Hele-Shaw channels reveal several phenomena that were not observed in previous experiments. At low flow rates, growing fingers undergo width fluctuations that intermittently narrow the finger as they evolve. The magnitude of these fluctuations is proportional to Ca–0.64, where Ca is the capillary number, which is proportional to the finger velocity. This relation holds for all aspect ratios studied up to the onset of tip instabilities. At higher flow rates, finger pinch-off and reconnection events are observed. These events appear to be caused by an interaction between the actively growing finger and suppressed fingers at the back of the channel. Both the fluctuation and pinch-off phenomena are robust but not explained by current theory. ©2003 American Institute of Physics

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Subjects:	PACS 2010, the AIP's Physics and Astronomy Classification Scheme > 40 ELECTROMAGNETISM, OPTICS, ACOUSTICS, HEAT TRANSFER, CLASSICAL MECHANICS, AND FLUID MECHANICS > 47 Fluid dynamics
Depositing User:	Ms Lucy van Russelt
Date Deposited:	05 Nov 2007
Last Modified:	20 Oct 2017 14:12
URI:	https://eprints.maths.manchester.ac.uk/id/eprint/873

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