Interface instabilities during displacements of two miscible fluids in a vertical pipe

We study experimentally the downward vertical displacement of one miscible fluid by another in a vertical pipe at sufficiently high velocities for diffusive effects to be negligible. For certain viscosity ratios and flow rates, the interface between the two fluids can destabilize. We determine the dimensionless flow rate U-c above which the instability is triggered and its dependence on the viscous ratio M, resulting in a stability map U-c=U-c(M). Two different instability modes have been observed: an asymmetric corkscrew mode and an axisymmetric one. We remark that the latter is always eventually disturbed by corkscrew type instabilities. We speculate that these instabilities are driven by the viscosity stratification and are analogous to those already observed in core annular flows of immiscible fluids. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.