Instability of long fingers in Hele--Shaw flows

Journal Article · Sat Jun 01 04:00:00 EDT 1985 · Phys. Fluids; (United States)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.864947· OSTI ID:5755490

Park, C W; Homsy, G M

Experiments on steady fingers and their stability in Hele--Shaw cells, are reported. It is shown that the shape of steady fingers scales with a modified capillary number, Ca', as suggested by McLean and Saffman (J. Fluid. Mech. 102, 455 (1981) and our previous analysis (J. Fluid Mech. 139, 291 (1984)). The behavior at large Ca' is investigated by using a wide Hele--Shaw cell. It is observed that such fingers are unstable for Ca'>100, in agreement with the prediction by Taylor and Saffman (second symposium on naval hydrodynamics, 1958, p. 277) of instability as Ca'..-->..infinity. The mechanism is identified as one of tip-splitting, which occurs periodically in the weakly supercritical regime, and in a more complex fashion for large Ca'.

• Research Organization: Department of Chemical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305
• OSTI ID: 5755490
• Journal Information: Phys. Fluids; (United States), Journal Name: Phys. Fluids; (United States) Vol. 28:6; ISSN PFLDA
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
420400* -- Engineering-- Heat Transfer & Fluid Flow
ALCOHOLS
DISPERSIONS
FLUID FLOW
GLYCEROL
HYDROGEN COMPOUNDS
HYDROXY COMPOUNDS
IDEAL FLOW
IMAGES
INSTABILITY
INTERFACES
MIXTURES
ORGANIC COMPOUNDS
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PHOTOGRAPHY
PLATES
SCALING LAWS
STEADY-STATE CONDITIONS
SURFACE PROPERTIES
SURFACE TENSION
TWO-PHASE FLOW
VISCOSITY
WATER
WETTABILITY