https://doi.org/10.1007/s100510050966
Discrete scale invariance in viscous fingering patterns
1
Condensed Matter Physics Research Centre, Physics Department, Jadavpur
University, Calcutta 700032, India
2
S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Block -JD,
Salt Lake, Calcutta 700091, India
3
Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Jadavpur, Calcutta
700032, India
Corresponding author: a sujata@juphys.ernet.in
Received:
21
May
1999
Published online: 15 November 1999
We study viscous fingering patterns in a lifting Hele-Shaw cell, where a non-Newtonian fluid (oil paint) is displaced by air. The lengths of the air fingers are measured and their cumulative distribution is seen to follow a power law with log-periodic oscillations indicating the presence of discrete scale invariance.
PACS: 47.20.Ma – Interfacial instability / 83.10.Ji – Fluid dynamics (nonlinear fluids) / 68.10.-m – Fluid surfaces and fluid-fluid interfaces
© EDP Sciences, Società Italiana di Fisica, Springer-Verlag, 1999
