Long waves in parallel flow in Hele-Shaw cells

Technical Report · Mon Apr 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5920848· OSTI ID:5920848

Zeybek, M; Yortsos, Y C

During the past several years the flow of immiscible flow in Hele-Shaw cells and porous media has been investigated extensively. Of particular interest to most studies has been frontal displacement, specifically viscous fingering instabilities and finger growth. The practical ramifications regarding oil recovery, as well as many other industrial processes in porous media, have served as the primary driving force for most of these investigations. By contrast, little attention has been paid to the motion of lateral fluid interface, which are parallel to the main flow direction. Parallel flow is an often encountered, although much overlooked regime. The evolution of fluid interfaces in parallel flow in Hele-Shaw cells is studied both theoretically and experimentally in the large capillary number limit. It is shown that such interfaces support wave motion, the amplitude of which for long waves is governed by the KdV equation. Experiments are conducted in a long Hele-Shaw cell that validate the theory in the symmetric case. 35 refs., 16 figs.

• Research Organization: University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA (USA). Dept. of Petroleum Engineering
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: FG22-90BC14600
• OSTI ID: 5920848
• Report Number(s): DOE/BC/14600-7; ON: DE91002232
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

02 PETROLEUM
020300* -- Petroleum-- Drilling & Production
AMPLITUDES
BOUNDARY CONDITIONS
CAPILLARY FLOW
ENERGY SOURCES
EQUATIONS
FLOW MODELS
FLUID FLOW
FOSSIL FUELS
FUELS
INCOMPRESSIBLE FLOW
INTERFACES
MATERIALS
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
PETROLEUM
POROUS MATERIALS
RECOVERY
RESERVOIR ROCK
TEST FACILITIES
WAVE PROPAGATION