Roughening dynamics of spontaneous radial imbibition

Abstract

We performed an experimental observation on the spontaneous imbibition of water in a porous media in a radial Hele-Shaw cell and confirmed Washburn's law, where r is distance and t is time. Spontaneous imbibition with a radial interface window followed scaling dynamics when the front invaded into the porous media. We found a growth exponent (\b{eta}=0.6) that was independent of the pressure applied at the liquid inlet. The roughness exponent decreased with an increase in pressure. The roughening dynamics of two dimensional spontaneous radial imbibition obey Family-Vicsek scaling, which is different from that with a one-dimensional planar interface window.