Computation of axisymmetric suction flow through porous media in the presence of surface tension (Q5926785)

The authors study numerically the effect of small surface tension for a class of axisymmetric flows with suction. They consider the dynamic evolution of a blob of incompressible viscous fluids surrounded by air and drawn into an interior sink. The velocity field of viscous fluid satisfies Darcy's law, and thus the motion can be considered as a flow motion through porous medium. The behaviour of fluid interface is computed by using a highly accurate boundary integral method which combines recent numerical techniques for high-order space and time discretizations. Through accurate computations, the authors show that, in the presence of small surface tension, the dynamic behaviour of axisymmetric flows is similar to that of (two-dimensional) Hele-Shaw counterparts. A long finger develops at the fluid interface and forms a cone singularity when it reaches the sink before all the fluid is sucked out. The finger bulges and develops a neck for sufficiently small surface tension. The bulge-neck formation is enhanced by additional components of mean curvature in three-dimensional flows. However, its effect is not strong enough to cause the interface to pinch off at the neck for the data considered in the paper.