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Published on: August 26, 2019
Spatial fluctuations of fluid velocities in flow through a three-dimensional porous medium
Sujit S Datta1, H Chiang, T S Ramakrishnan
1Department of Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
We use confocal microscopy to directly visualize the spatial fluctuations in fluid flow through a three-dimensional porous medium. We find that the velocity magnitudes and the velocity components both along and transverse to the imposed flow direction are exponentially distributed, even with residual trapping of a second immiscible fluid. Moreover, we find pore-scale correlations in the flow that are determined by the geometry of the medium. Our results suggest that despite the considerable complexity of the pore space, fluid flow through it is not completely random.
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