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Phys. Rev. E 74, 015201(R) (2006) [4 pages]

Fjords in viscous fingering: Selection of width and opening angle

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Leif Ristroph1, Matthew Thrasher1,*, Mark B. Mineev-Weinstein2, and Harry L. Swinney1
1Center for Nonlinear Dynamics and Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas 78712, USA
2Applied Physics Division, MS-P365, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA

Received 21 October 2005; published 11 July 2006

Our experiments on viscous fingering of air into oil contained between closely spaced plates reveal two selection rules for the fjords of oil that separate fingers of air. (Fjords are the building blocks of solutions of the zero-surface-tension Laplacian growth equation.) Experiments in rectangular and circular geometries yield fjords with base widths λc∕2, where λc is the most unstable wavelength from a linear stability analysis. Further, fjords open at an angle of 8.0°±1.0°. These selection rules hold for a wide range of pumping rates and fjord lengths, widths, and directions.

© 2006 The American Physical Society

URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevE.74.015201
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevE.74.015201
PACS:
47.54.−r, 47.20.Ma, 68.35.Ja

*Electronic address: thrasher@chaos.utexas.edu

 
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