Fingering instability in water-oil displacement

I. Brailovsky, A. Babchin, M. Frankel, Grishas Sivashinsky*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

27 Scopus citations

Abstract

Following the classical Buckley-Leverett theory for the two-phase immiscible flows in porous media a non-linear evolution equation for the water-oil displacement front is formulated and studied numerically. The numerical simulations yield a physically plausible picture of the fingering instability known to develop in water-oil systems. A way to control the unrestricted growth of fingers is discussed. Distinctions and similarities with dynamically related Saffman-Taylor and Darrieus-Landau problems are outlined.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)363-380
Number of pages18
JournalTransport in Porous Media
Volume63
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2006

Funding

FundersFunder number
Alberta Research Council
European Community ProgramRTN-NPRN-CT-2002-00274
German-Israeli Foundation for Scientific Research and DevelopmentG-695-15.10/2001
United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation2002008
Israel Science Foundation278-03
National Science FoundationDMS-0207308

    Keywords

    • Fingering
    • Flows in porous media
    • Interface instability

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