Buoyant displacement flows in slightly non-uniform channels

Abstract

We consider displacement flows in slightly diverging or converging plane channels. The two fluids are miscible and buoyancy is significant. We assume that the channel is oriented close to horizontal. Employing a classical lubrication approximation, we simplify the governing equations to furnish a semi-analytical solution for the flux functions. Then, we demonstrate how the non-uniformity of the displacement flow geometry can affect the propagation of the interface between the heavy and light fluids in time, for various parameters studied, e.g. the viscosity ratio, a buoyancy number and rheological features. By setting the molecular diffusion effects to zero, certain solution behaviours at longer times can be practically predicted through the associated hyperbolic problem, using which it becomes possible to directly compute the interfacial features of interest, e.g. leading and trailing front heights and speeds. For a Newtonian displacement flow in a converging or uniform channel, as the buoyancy number increases from zero, we are able to classify three flow regimes based on the behaviour of the trailing front near the top of the channel: a no-back-flow regime, a stationary interface flow regime, and a sustained back-flow regime. For the case of a diverging channel flow, the sustained back-flow regime is replaced by an eventually stationary interface flow regime. In addition, as the displacement flow progresses, the leading front speed typically increases (decreases) in a converging (diverging) channel, while the opposite is usually true for the front height. For the no-back-flow regime (i.e. with small buoyancy), the solution of the displacement flow at long times in all the geometries considered converges to a similarity form, while no similarity form is found for the other flow regimes. As the displacement flow develops, frontal diffusive effects are reduced (enhanced) in a converging (diverging) channel and multiple fronts are progressively less (more) present in a converging (diverging) channel. Regarding non-Newtonian effects, a shear-thinning fluid displacing a Newtonian fluid exhibits an increasingly fast front that has a short height in a converging channel. When a yield stress is present in the displaced fluid, it is possible to find residual wall layers of displaced fluid that are completely static. These layers disappear at a certain critical downstream distance in a converging channel while they appear at a critical distance in a diverging channel. Finally, the combination of strong buoyant and yield-stress effects can modify the destiny of a second front that follows the leading front.