Invariant Forms of Dissolution Fingers
Dissolution of fractured and porous media introduces a positive feedback between fluid flow and reactant transport, leading to the emergence of pronounced, fingerlike channels. We investigate the formation of these structures using a microfluidic Hele-Shaw cell with a soluble bottom. Our experiments show that the shape of dissolution fingers is invariant and reveals itself over time as the fingers extend into the system. By combining reactive-transport theory and conformal mapping techniques we derive these invariant forms. We relate these results to natural dissolution fingers in karst landscapes, and illustrate how to determine the groundwater flow rate responsible for their formation based on the finger shape.
Authors
- Anthony J. C. Ladd (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0271-0650)
- Silvana Magni (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2620-2375)
- Filip Dutka (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9171-7490)
- Florian Osselin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1991-7153)
- Stanisław Żukowski (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6319-3995)
- Piotr Szymczak (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8940-7891)
- Max P. Cooper (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6004-5081)
Institutions
- University of Florida (US)
- Institut des Sciences de la Terre (FR)
- Laboratoire Matière et Systèmes Complexes (FR)
- University of Warsaw (PL)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Physical Review Letters
- Published
- 2025-03-04
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.134.094101
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Theoretical and Computational Physics
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 2.52
Funders
- U.S. Department of Energy
- Narodowe Centrum Nauki