Flekkøy Eirik G, Schmittbuhl Jean, Løvholt Finn, Oxaal Unni, Måløy Knut Jørgen, Aagaard Per
Department of Physics, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1048 Blindern, 0316 Oslo 3, Norway.
Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2002 Mar;65(3 Pt 2B):036312. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.65.036312. Epub 2002 Feb 21.
The flow paths and instabilities of gravity driven infiltration of a wetting fluid into a porous medium are studied. The model experiments and simulations independently represent techniques to study the unsaturated flow in porous media, and they produce a consistent picture of how the paths of fluid transport form and depend on the relative strength of the gravitational force. The experiments, which employ a transparent and quasi-two-dimensional model, reveal that the fluid pathways contain an internal link-blob structure and increase in width with decreasing gravity. The model, which couples the well established invasion percolation model for capillary governed flow with a model that describes the viscous film flow in partially filled pores, corroborates these experimental findings.
