Experimental study of 3D Rayleigh-Taylor convection between miscible fluids in a porous medium

The natural convection of miscible fluids in porous media has applications in several fields, such as geoscience and geoengineering, and can be employed for the geological storage of CO2. In this study, we used X-ray computer tomography to visualize 3D fingering structures associated with the Rayleigh-Taylor instability between miscible fluids in a porous medium. In the early stages of the onset of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability, a fine crinkling pattern gradually appeared at the interface. As the wavelength and amplitude increased, descending fingers formed on the interface and extended vertically downward; in addition, ascending and highly symmetric fingers formed. The adjacent fingers were cylindrical in shape and coalesced to form large fingers. The fingers appearing on the interface tended to become finer with increasing Rayleigh number, which is consistent with linear perturbation theory. When the Peclet number exceeded 10, transverse dispersion increased the finger diameter and enhanced the finger coalescence, strongly impacting the decrease in finger number density. When mechanical dispersion was negligible, the finger-extension velocity and the dimensionless mass-transfer rate scaled with the characteristic velocity and the Rayleigh number with an appropriate length scale. Mechanical dispersion not only reduced the onset time but also enhanced the mass transport. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.