STEADILY TRANSLATING PARABOLIC DISSOLUTION FINGERS∗
Piotr Szymczak · 2016
Abstract. Dissolution fingers (or wormholes) are formed during the dissolution of a porous rock as a result of nonlinear feedback between the flow, transport, and chemical reactions at pore surfaces. We analyze the shapes and growth velocities of such fingers within the thin-front approximation, in which the reaction is assumed to take place instantaneously with reactants fully consumed at the dissolution front. We concentrate on the case when the main flow is driven by a constant pressure gradient far from the finger, and the permeability contrast between the inside and the outside of the finger is finite. Using Ivantsov ansatz and conformal transformations we find the family of steadily translating fingers characterized by a parabolic shape. We derive the reactant concentration field and the pressure field inside and outside of the fingers and show that the flow within them is uniform. The advancement velocity of the finger is shown to be inversely proportional to its radius of curvature in the small Péclet number limit and independent of the radius of curvature for large Péclet numbers.