Radial Fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell

LadHyx Internship Report, October 3 - December 23, 2011

Marco Nicotra
DIA, Politecnico di Milano
Paris, December 2011
What is viscous ngering?
Figure: Paterson 1981

investigated for fundamental

reasons and also for industrial
research

archetype for growth patterns

(free-boundary problems)

it limits oil recovery in porous

media
The Hele-Shaw ow
Locally plane Poiseuille ow of
Newtonian viscous uid. Take
(x, y) coordinates in plane of cell,
pressure approximately p(x, y, t).
The NS equations reduces to:
u
i
=
b
2
12
i
p
i
i = 1, 2
The governing equation of HS ows is identical to that of ows
through porous media (Darcys law):
b
2
12
K (permeability of the medium)
Radial Hele-Shaw cell
Point source at the center of the cell:
u = Q(x x
S
)
Compatibility condition at the outow boundary:
^r u =
Q
2r
out
where ^r is the unit vector in the radial direction. In terms of the
pressure:
p
r
=
12
b
2
Q
2r
out
.
Boundary conditions at the interface

The pressure drop across the interface depends on the

surface tension through
[p]

= =
_
2
b
+
2d
_
where is the curvature of the interface.

Kinematic condition
x
t
(, t) = u|
x(,t)
where is a Lagrangian parameter.
Linear stability analysis (Bataille 1968)
Darcys law in polar coordinates:

i
r
2
+
1
r

i
r
+
1
r
2

2
= 0
where
i
= K
i
p
i
is the velocity potential.
The velocity potential of the steady ow (circular interface) can
be derived as:

(0)
i
=
Q
2
_
ln
r
R
+
K
i
K
2
_
Linear stability analysis (Bataille 1968)
As the interface moves, it experiences
perturbations due to inhomogeneities.
Any perturbation can be expressed as an
innite sum of wavelike functions.
a = Af (t)e
in
The required solution is

i
=
(0)
i
+ (1)
i

_
r
n
R
n
_
(1)
i 1
e
in
with to be determined by continuity
at the perturbed interface.
Linear stability analysis (Bataille 1968)
The pressure drop across the interface can be expressed as
p
1
p
2
=
_
2
b
+
1
R

a + d
2
a/d
2
R
2
_
This leads to:
df
dt
=
_
Qn
2R
2
_
K
1
K
2
K
1
+ K
2
_

Q
2R
2

n(n
2
1)
R
3
_
K
1
K
2
K
1
+ K
2
__
. .
Growth Rate
f
Linear stability analysis (Bataille 1968)
Competition between the destabilization eect due to pumping and
the stabilizing eect due to surface tension.
Multiphase ow formulation (Tryggvason & Jan 2001)

Single set of conservation equation for the whole ow eld

Surface tension added by appropriate interface terms to the

governing equations (by functions)

Discontinuous material properties: all variables must be

interpreted in terms of generalized functions
b(x, t) = b
1
+ (b
2
b
1
)H(x, t)
where H is the step function dened by
H(x, t) =
_
S(t)
(x x

)ds

and S(t) is the area bounded by the interface (t).

Multiphase ow formulation (Tryggvason & Jan 2001)
The governing equation for the indicator function H is the
following Poisson equation

2
H =
_
(t)
n(x x
f
)d
where n is the inward unit normal.
The interface is advected in a Lagrangian fashion by integrating
dx
f
dt
= u(x
f
)
Governing equations
Introducing the hypothesis of the Hele-Shaw ow one obtains the
following 2d governing equations:
u = Q(x x
s
)
u =
_
p
_
(t)
n(x x
f
)d
_
Applying the divergence and using continuity equation:
(p) = Q(x x
s
) +
_

_
(t)
n(x x
f
)d
_
where
=
b
2
12
N.B.: since it doesnt aect the velocity eld we will neglet the
surface tension term depending on the meniscus curvature.
Adimensional form of the governing equations
L
R
= b
R
=
1
p
R
= /b U
R
= Q/b
A =
12
1
Q
b

1
/
1

_
= A

(x

s
)+

1
/
1
_

(x

f
)d

_
p

= A

1
1
2
log(r

) (Dirichlet BC)

(x

s
)
u

=
1
A
1
/
1
_

(x

f
)d

_
Viscosity ratio eect
0 5 10 15 20
0.035
0.03
0.025
0.02
0.015
0.01
0.005
0
0.005
0.01
0.015
n
G
R

1
= 10

1
= 100

1
= 1000
Adimensional parameter eect
0 5 10 15
0.1
0.08
0.06
0.04
0.02
0
0.02
n
G
R

A = 20
A = 10
A = 5
Interface structure
A xed grid is used for the conservation equations but a moving
grid of lower dimension marks the boundary between the dierent
phases.
Immersed boundary method (Peskin 1977)
Transfer of the information between the interface and the xed grid:

The quantity transferred must be conserved

ij
=

p
D
ij
(x
p
)
xy

p
(e.g. surface tension)
u
p
=

ij
u
ij
D
ij
(x
p
) (velocity)
Immersed boundary method (Peskin 1977)
The front is given a nite thickness on the order of the mesh size to
provide smoothness.
D
ij
(x
p
) =
_
x
p
x(i )
x
_

_
y
p
y(j )
y
_
where
(r ) =
_

1
(r ), |r | 1
1/2
1
(2 |r |), 1 < |r | < 2
0, |r | 2
and

1
(r ) =
3 2|r | +
_
1 + 4|r | 4r
2
8
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
0.45
0.5
r

(
r
)
Interface reconstruction

Since the interface stretches and deforms greatly it is

necessary to add/delete interface elements

Topology changes (pinching/merging)

Contour level (approximated by a line) across each grid cell at the
value H = 0.5 using linear interpolation.
Interface reconstruction
Because we use linear interpolation, neighboring elements from
neighboring cells will always have the same endpoint locations.
Although adjacent elements are not logically connected, their
endpoints are automatically physically linked (no need for explicit
bookkeeping of neighbor elements connectivity).
Stretching
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1
Vortex ow
u(x) = 2
_
sin
2
(x)sin(y)cos(y)
sin
2
(y)sin(x)cos(x)
_
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
0.5
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1


t = 0
t = t
end
Merging (/pinching o)
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
x
y
x
y
H = 0.5 contour
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
Surface tension treatement
The force on a short segment of the front is given by:
F
e
=
_

nd
Using the Frenet relation n = dt/d, we can write this as:
F
e
=
_
A
B

d = (t
B
t
A
)
Surface tension treatement
0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
0.56
0.58
0.6
0.62
0.64
0.66
Surface tension treatement
0.35 0.4 0.45 0.5
0.56
0.58
0.6
0.62
0.64
0.66
Solvers (nite dierences)

Poisson equation for the Indicator function:

H
i +1,j
2H
i ,j
+ H
i 1,j
x
2
+
H
i ,j +1
2H
i ,j
+ H
i ,j 1
y
2
=
(N
x
)
i +
1
2
,j
(N
x
)
i
1
2
,j
x
+
(N
y
)
i ,j +
1
2
(N
y
)
i ,j
1
2
y
where
N
i ,j
=

p
n
p
D
ij
(x
p
)
xy

p

_
(t)
n(x x
f
)d
Fast Poisson solver: cyclic reduction algorithmn to solve the
linear system.
Solvers (nite dierences)

Poisson equation (with varying coecient) for the pressure:

1
x
2

i +
1
2
,j
(p
i +1,j
p
i ,j
)
i
1
2
,j
(p
i ,j
p
i 1,j
)

+
1
y
2

i ,j +
1
2
(p
i ,j +1
p
i ,j
)
i ,j
1
2
(p
i ,j
p
i ,j 1
)

= Q
i ,j
+
1
x

i +
1
2
,j
(ST
x
)
i +
1
2
,j

i
1
2
,j
(ST
x
)
i
1
2
,j

+
1
y

i ,j +
1
2
(ST
y
)
i ,j +
1
2

i ,j
1
2
(ST
y
)
i ,j
1
2

where
ST
ij
=

p
F
p
D
ij
(x
p
)
xy

(t)
n(x x
f
)d
BiCG-stab algorithmn to solve the resulting unsymmetric
linear system.
N.B.: To evaluate
i
1
2
,j
and
i ,j
1
2
we use a double resolution
for the Indicator function equation.
Velocity recovery
u
i
1
2
,j
=
i
1
2
,j
_
(p
i 1,j
p
i ,j
)
x
(ST
x
)
i
1
2
,j
_
v
i
1
2
,j
=
i ,j
1
2
_
(p
i ,j 1
p
i ,j
)
y
(ST
y
)
i ,j
1
2
_
u
i ,j
=
u
i +
1
2
,j
+ u
i
1
2
,j
2
v
i ,j
=
v
i ,j +
1
2
+ v
i ,j
1
2
2
Interpolation to the interface points:
u
p
=

ij
u
ij
D
ij
(x
p
)
Linear analysis
0 5 10 15 20
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
2
4
6
n
G
r
o
w
t
h
R
a
t
e
Non linear case
0 2 4 6 8 10
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Extra options

Mass conservation

Non stationary mass ow rate

...?