Effect of Elasticity and Nonlinear Viscosity on Fingering Instability in Heterogeneous Porous Media

The Saffman-Taylor instability of polymeric fluids flooding through saturated heterogeneous porous media is studied numerically. The displacement of a Newtonian fluid by a viscoelastic liquid is examined using a Hartley transformation and a fourth-order Adams-Bashforth technique. The flow is assumed to be miscible, and the Carreau-Yasuda equation is used to model the shear-thinning viscometric functions. The effects of different rheological properties and domain parameters on flow instability are studied in detail. It is found that a channeling regime is possible as the main difference between displacements through homogeneous and heterogeneous media. A numerical study examined the Saffman-Taylor instability of polymeric fluids flooding through saturated heterogeneous porous media. The displacement of a Newtonian fluid by a viscoelastic liquid is evaluated by the Hartley transformation and a fourth-order Adams-Bashforth technique. The effects of different rheological properties and domain parameters on flow instability are analyzed. image