English

Wetting Fronts in Porous Media

Fluid Dynamics 2020-04-07 v1

Abstract

The dynamics of the wetting front are considered during the imbibition of a fluid into a porous substrate through a circular drawing area. A mathematical model of this process, assuming incompressible Darcy flow, is presented, before the full finite element scheme for solving this set of equations is given allowing the reader to reproduce all presented results. Asymptotic analysis is performed revealing contradictions between the assumptions of Darcy's equation and the solutions it produces, along with qualitative results for the behaviour of the wetting front and macroscopic contact angles. Velocity and pressure distributions across the wetted region are presented, as well as plots of the evolution of the wetting front and parameters with discussion.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2004.02606,
  title  = {Wetting Fronts in Porous Media},
  author = {Edward W. G. Skevington},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2004.02606},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Masters Thesis, 70 pages, 76 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-23T14:40:54.178Z