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Fingering instabilities of a reactive micellar interface

Thomas Podgorski·Michael C. Sostarecz·Sylvain Zorman·Andrew Belmonte
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Abstract

We present an experimental study of the fingering patterns in a Hele-Shaw cell, occurring when a gel-like material forms at the interface between aqueous solutions of a cationic surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) and an organic salt (salicylic acid), two solutions known to form a highly elastic wormlike micellar fluid when mixed homogeneously. A variety of fingering instabilities are observed, depending on the velocity of the front (the injection rate), and on which fluid is injected into which. We have found a regime of non-confined stationary or wavy fingers for which width selection seems to occur without the presence of bounding walls, unlike the Saffman-Taylor experiment. Qualitatively, some of our observations share common mechanisms with instabilities of cooling lava flows or growing biofilms.

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Thomas Podgorski, Michael C. Sostarecz, Sylvain Zorman, Andrew Belmonte. 2007-06-05. Fingering instabilities of a reactive micellar interface. https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.76.016202

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