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arXiv · 1705.07775

Forced imbibition in porous media: a fourfold scenario

Céleste Odier·Bertrand Levaché·Enrich Santanach-Carreras·Denis Bartolo
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Abstract

We establish a comprehensive description of the patterns formed when a wetting liquid displaces a viscous fluid confined in a porous medium. Building on model microfluidic experiments, we evidence four imbibition scenarios all yielding different large-scale morphologies. Combining high-resolution imaging and confocal microscopy, we show that they originate from two liquid-entrainment transitions and a Rayleigh-Plateau instability at the pore scale. Finally, we demonstrate and explain the long-time coarsening of the resulting patterns.

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Céleste Odier, Bertrand Levaché, Enrich Santanach-Carreras, Denis Bartolo. 2017-05-22. Forced imbibition in porous media: a fourfold scenario. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.119.208005

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