Abstract
Numerical simulations of capillary displacement in 2D porous media indicate a dynamical critical transition as the contact angle of the invading fluid varies. In the nonwetting limit (), growth patterns are fractal as in the invasion percolation model. As decreases, cooperative smoothing mechanisms involving neighboring throats become important. The typical width of invading fingers appears to diverge at a critical angle which depends on porosity. Below this angle the fluid floods the system uniformly.
- Received 1 February 1988
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.60.2042
©1988 American Physical Society