Related papers: Effect of geometric disorder on chaotic viscoelast…
Viscoelastic flows through porous media become unstable and chaotic beyond critical flow conditions, impacting industrial and biological processes. Recently, Walkama \textit{et al.} [Phys. Rev. Lett. \textbf{124}, 164501 (2020)] have shown…
Viscoelastic flows transition from steady to time-dependent, chaotic dynamics under critical flow conditions, but the implications of geometric disorder for flow stability in these systems are unknown. Utilizing microfluidics, we flow a…
Recent works reveal the importance of chaotic flow fluctuations as a mechanism for the enhanced resistance observed in viscoelastic porous media flows, and also show how chaotic fluctuations are affected by the structural disorder of porous…
Diverse processes rely on the viscous flow of polymer solutions through porous media. In many cases, the macroscopic flow resistance abruptly increases above a threshold flow rate in a porous medium---but not in bulk solution. The reason…
Viscoelastic fluids exhibit elastic instabilities in simple shear flow and flow through curved streamlines. Surprisingly, we found in a porous medium such fluids show strikingly different hydrodynamic instabilities depicted by very large…
In this work, we study the role of viscoelastic instability in the mechanical dispersion of fluid flow through porous media at high Peclet numbers. Using microfluidic experiments and numerical simulations, we show that viscoelastic…
Polymer solutions exhibit anomalous flow thickening -- marked by an abrupt increase in the macroscopic flow resistance -- above a threshold flow rate in a porous medium, but not in bulk solution. This phenomenon has evaded a mechanistic…
Microscopic flows are almost universally linear, laminar and stationary because Reynolds number, $Re$, is usually very small. That impedes mixing in micro-fluidic devices, which sometimes limits their performance. Here we show that truly…
It is presently believed that flows of viscoelastic polymer solutions in geometries such as a straight pipe or channel are linearly stable. Here we present experimental evidence that such flows can be nonlinearly unstable and can exhibit a…
Addition of particles to a viscoelastic suspension dramatically alters the properties of the mixture, particularly when it is sheared or otherwise processed. Shear-induced stretching of the polymers results in elastic stress that causes a…
Early turbulence in periodic cylinder arrays is of particular interest in many practical applications to enhance mixing and material/heat exchange. In this study, we reveal a new early transition pathway to a chaotic wavy state and drag…
In this study, geometrically modified microchannels fabricated using stereolithography technique are employed to analyze micromixing of polymeric solutions. Experimental and numerical analyses were conducted to evaluate the qualitative and…
We report experimental results on elastic instability in a viscoelastic channel shear flow due to only a natural non-smoothed inlet and small holes along the channel for pressure measurements. We show that non-normal mode instability…
We present a systematic, quantitative assessment of the impact of pore size disorder and its interplay with flow rates and wettability on immiscible displacement of a viscous fluid. Pore-scale simulations and micromodel experiments show…
In disordered porous media, two-phase flow of immiscible fluids (biphasic flow) is organized in patterns that sometimes exhibit fractal geometries over a range of length scales, depending on the capillary, gravitational and viscous forces…
Immiscible fluid-fluid displacement in porous media is of great importance in many engineering applications, such as enhanced oil recovery, agricultural irrigation, and geologic CO2 storage. Fingering phenomena, induced by the interface…
It is shown that the addition of small amounts of microscopic rods in a viscous fluid at low Reynolds number causes a significant increase of the flow resistance. Numerical simulations of the dynamics of the solution reveal that this…
Microscale turbulent flow in porous media is conducive to the development of flow instabilities due to strong vortical and shearing flow occurring within the pore space. When the flow instabilities around individual solid obstacles interact…
Viscous and gravitational fingering refer to flow instabilities in porous media that are triggered by adverse mobility or density ratios, respectively. These instabilities have been studied extensively in the past for 1) single-phase flow…
Polymer solutions are frequently used in enhanced oil recovery and groundwater remediation to improve the recovery of trapped non-aqueous fluids. However, applications are limited by an incomplete understanding of the flow in porous media.…