Radial Viscous Fingering in Case of Poorly Miscible Fluids

Abstract

The displacement of a viscous fluid from an annular Hele-Shaw cell with a source of finite radius by a less viscous one is investigated. A special case of poorly miscible fluids is considered when corresponding dimensionless criteria—capillary and Peclet numbers—both tend to infinity. Brinkman model which additionally takes into account small viscous forces in a plane of the cell is used to describe the displacement process. Linear analysis shows a stabilizing effect of viscous forces and reveals a geometrical similarity criterion, namely the ratio of the interface’s radius to the gap between the cell’s plates. The displacement patterns, obtained numerically under Brinkman model, are very sensitive to the discovered criterion. The comparison with available experimental data is acceptable.