On the displacement of two immiscible Oldroyd-B fluids in a Hele-Shaw cell (Q2280144)

The purpose of this article is to study the linear instability of the displacement of two Oldroyd-B fluids in a rectilinear Hele-Shaw cell by using the constitutive equations of the Oldroyd-B fluids. The basic solution is similar to Darcy's law for a porous medium. It is impossible to study the general equations, therefore the stability of the linear perturbation system is analyzed by Fourier decomposition. The growth rate formula contains both dimensional and dimensionless quantities, such as the dimensionless Saffman-Taylor formula. Finally, som special cases are studied and dispersion curves are shown, philosophical and numerical aspects are discussed. Some long special cases are shown in an appendix.