Rafael M. Oliveira
Assistant Professor

Phone: +55 (21) 3527-1169
E-mail: rmo@puc-rio.br

Perspective view showing miscible viscous finger and inner splitting mechanism. Three-dimensional concentration isosurface is depicted along with projections of the center planes. (pdf) (youtube)

Three-dimensional Navier-Stokes simulation showing nonlinear interactions between viscous fingers. Streamwise vorticity quadrupoles drive the merging between fingers and the inner splitting mechanism. (youtube)

In horizontal displacements of a viscous fluid by a lighter, less viscous one, gravitational instabilities interact with viscous instabilities. Tipically the wavelengths of the Rayleigh-Taylor instabilities are smaller than the wavelengths of the viscous finger, and a gravitational cavity forms as a results of heavier resident fluid sinking into the lighter, less viscous finger body. (pdf) (youtube)