The long cross-over dynamics of capillary imbibition

Spontaneous capillary imbibition is a classical problem in interfacial fluid dynamics with a broad range of applications, from microfluidics to agriculture. Here we study the duration of the cross-over between an initial linear growth of the imbibition front to the diffusive-like growth limit of Was...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Ruiz-Gimenez, E., Armstrong, S., Leveque, A., Michel, C., Pagonabarraga Mora, Ignacio, Wells, G.G., Hernández Machado, Aurora, Ledesma Aguilar, Rodrigo Andrés
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2022
País:España
Institución:Universidad de Barcelona
Repositorio:Dipòsit Digital de la UB
OAI Identifier:oai:diposit.ub.edu:2445/193868
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/2445/193868
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Capil·laritat
Dinàmica de fluids
Viscositat
Capillarity
Fluid dynamics
Viscosity
Descripción
Sumario:Spontaneous capillary imbibition is a classical problem in interfacial fluid dynamics with a broad range of applications, from microfluidics to agriculture. Here we study the duration of the cross-over between an initial linear growth of the imbibition front to the diffusive-like growth limit of Washburn's law. We show that local-resistance sources, such as the inertial resistance and the friction caused by the advancing meniscus, always limit the motion of an imbibing front. Both effects give rise to a cross-over of the growth exponent between the linear and the diffusive-like regimes. We show how this cross-over is much longer than previously thought - even longer than the time it takes the liquid to fill the porous medium. Such slowly slowing-down dynamics is likely to cause similar long cross-over phenomena in processes governed by wetting.