Experimental Study of the Growth of Mixing Zone in Miscible Viscous Fingering

An experimental study is performed to quantify the growth of the mixing zone in miscible viscous fingering. Rectilinear flow displacement experiments are performed in a Hele-Shaw cell over a wide range of viscosity ratios (1–1225) by injecting water into glycerol solutions at different flow rates. All the experiments are performed at high Peclet numbers and linear growth in mixing zone is observed. The mixing zone velocity increases with the viscosity ratio up to viscosity ratios of 340 and the trend is consistent with Koval’s model. However, at higher viscosity ratios, the mixing velocity plateaus signifying no further effect of viscosity contrast on the growth of mixing zone. The front (fingertip) velocities also increase up to viscosity ratios of 340 above which the velocities plateau.