2018/02/09 by Priyanka Shukla, A. De Wit, Shukla, Priyanka +1
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Material Dynamics and Properties #Pickering emulsions and particle stabilization #Theoretical and Computational Physics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1802.04153
openalex publication_date 2018/02/09 · openalex created_date 2022/08/28 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
The hydrodynamic viscous fingering instability can be influenced by a simple\nviscosity changing chemical reaction of type A+B --> C, when a solution of\nreactant A is injected into a solution of B and a product C of different\nviscosity is formed. We investigate here numerically such reactive viscous\nfingering in the case of a reaction decreasing the viscosity to define the\noptimal conditions on the chemical and hydrodynamic parameters for controlling\nfingering. In particular, we analyze the influence of the injection flow rate\nor equivalently of the Peclet number (Pe) of the problem on the efficiency of\nthe chemical control of fingering. We show that the viscosity decreasing\nreaction has an increased stabilizing effect when Pe is decreased. On the\ncontrary, fingering is more intense and the system more unstable when Pe is\nincreased. The related reactive fingering patterns cover then respectively a\nsmaller (larger) area than in the non-reactive equivalent. Depending on the\nvalue of the flow rate, a given chemical reaction may thus either enhance or\nsuppress a fingering instability. This stabilization and destabilization at low\nand high Pe are shown to be related to the Pe-dependent characteristics of a\nminimum in the viscosity profile that develops around the miscible interface\nthanks to the effect of the chemical reaction.\n