Control of Viscous Fingering Instability for Complex Yield-Stress Fluids using a Tapered Cell

Abstract

Being a major limiting factor for the efficiency of various technologies, such as Enhanced Oil Recovery, the viscous fingering (or Saffman--Taylor) instability has been extensively studied, especially for simple Newtonian fluids. Here, we experimentally and theoretically demonstrate a vital control of inhibiting the viscous fingering instability for complex (yield-stress) fluids to generate a complete sweep with a flat interface. Using a rectangular tapered cell, we first experimentally show the feasibility of controlling the primary fingering instability of a complex yield-stress fluid when pushed by another less viscous one. We further develop a theoretical linear stability analysis generalized for complex fluids with a yield stress and a power-law form of viscosity to provide insights. With three complex solutions yielding different viscosity contrasts, we observe stable flat and unstable wavy interfaces depending on the gap gradient ($\alpha$) and injection flow rate ($Q$). Finally, the comparison reveals an agreeable theoretical stability criterion capable of predicting stable vs. unstable displacements for yield-stress fluids under various $\alpha$.