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Physicists figure out how to reduce formation of 'viscous fingers'

Phys · · 840 words · By Maureen Searcy

Researchers at the University of Chicago have discovered that altering the shape of the interface between fluids of different viscosities can delay and slow the formation of 'viscous fingers.' This finding, published in Science Advances, has potential applications for improving industrial processes such as oil extraction and carbon sequestration.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://phys.org/news/2026-05-physicists-figure-formation-viscous-fingers.html

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fact_checkFact-Check Results

13 claims extracted and verified against multiple sources including cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia.

check_circle Corroborated 5
verified Verified 3
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verified Verified By Reference 1
help Insufficient Evidence 1
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“when you push a less viscous fluid like water into a more viscous fluid like soap in a confined space, the place where the two fluids meet can be unstable, and the runnier liquid might find a path of least resistance.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources describe the instability that occurs when a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous one in confined spaces, leading to the 'viscous fingering' phenomenon.
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web search NEUTRAL — 1 day ago ... When one fluid meets another in a confined space, the stability of the interface depends on a few factors: how easily the fluids mix, the ...
https://news.uchicago.edu/story/uchicago-physicists-figure-o…
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web search NEUTRAL — Mar 26, 2024 ... Suppressing the interfacial instability during fluid displacement, namely, viscous fingering, has been a long-lasting challenge in many ...
https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.9.033701
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web search NEUTRAL — May 26, 2023 ... Injection of aqueous solutions into layers of dry, hydrophobic grains represent a viscously stable scenario where we observe a transition from ...
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10220059/
verified
“tiny protuberances form at the place where the fluids touch, in a phenomenon physicists call "viscous fingering."”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
Wikipedia and other scientific sources explicitly define 'viscous fingering' as the formation of finger-like protuberances when a less viscous fluid displaces a more viscous one.
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web search NEUTRAL — Fluid instability. An example of viscous fingering in a Hele-Shaw cell.soils.[3] It occurs when a less viscous fluid is injected, displacing a more viscous fluid; in the inverse situation, with the mo…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saffman–Taylor_instability
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web search NEUTRAL — Viscous fingering instability is often studied using a Hele-Shaw cell, an apparatus consisting of two flat, parallel plates separated by an extremely thin gap. The team filled the gap with a high visc…
https://physicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/article/a-stable-…
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web search NEUTRAL — Viscous fingering occurs when a thinner fluid pushes a thicker, more viscous fluid in a porous medium, like underground rock, creating unpredictable, finger-like patterns. For decades, this intricate …
https://phys.org/news/2025-11-century-puzzle-ai-viscous-fing…
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“In certain types of confined spaces, the fingers form a branching pattern.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple scientific papers and videos describe the resulting patterns as 'fingering interfacial patterns' or 'branching' in porous media and Hele-Shaw cells.
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web search NEUTRAL — Viscous fingering or Saffman-Taylor instability shows fingering interfacial patterns when a more mobile fluid displaces a less mobile one in porous media.We study the issue of the selection of viscous…
https://www.academia.edu/88053468/Viscous_fingering_as_a_par…
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web search NEUTRAL — The directions are converted into a form of external force by means of a linear feedback system. Our results show that the DLA model can generate the viscous fingering effect effectively in a single p…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmF4iQAh2rc
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web search NEUTRAL — Viscous fingering is one of the main challenges that could reduce areal sweep efficiency during waterflooding in oil. reservoirs. A series of waterflooding experiments were carried out in a Hele-Shaw cell…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328201390_Viscous_f…
verified
“In a new study published in Science Advances, Nagel's team discovered that changing the shape of the interface where the fluids touch can delay onset and slow the growth of the branches”
VERIFIED
A University of Chicago news release specifically confirms that Sidney Nagel's team published a study in Science Advances discovering that changing the interface shape can reduce finger formation.
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web search NEUTRAL — In a new study published in Science Advances, Nagel’s team discovered that physically changing the shape of the interface between two fluids of different viscosity increased stability and reduced fing…
https://physicalsciences.uchicago.edu/news/article/a-stable-…
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web search NEUTRAL — the results of a study by a group of scientists from China and Germany.
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aay5206
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web search NEUTRAL — Sidney Nagel, pictured in his office at the University of Chicago, concerns himself with coffee stains, traffic jams and “all the ways in which nature works, not just the ones that sound esoteric and …
https://www.quantamagazine.org/finding-beauty-and-truth-in-m…
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“companies use carbon dioxide to push oil out of reservoirs—but if the interface becomes unstable and forms fingers, the gas can shoot straight through the oil to the extraction well.”
CORROBORATED
Sources confirm CO2 is used for enhanced oil recovery and that mobility control (addressing instabilities like fingering) is a key challenge to prevent gas from bypassing oil.
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web search NEUTRAL — This promotes increased capacity for extraction. While the operational aspects of EOR are similar to those of injection into a saline reservoir, not all CO2 ...
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/engineering/enhanced-oi…
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web search NEUTRAL — Jul 21, 2025 ... Carbon dioxide (CO2) is the most common injection gas due to its excellent miscibility properties with crude oil. When CO2 dissolves into oil ...
https://westairgases.com/blog/what-is-enhanced-oil-recovery/
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web search NEUTRAL — Dec 22, 2023 ... Mobility Control: Gas injection can also be used to control the mobility of the fluids in the reservoir. For instance, injecting CO2 can cause ...
https://www.facebook.com/globalpetroleumsociety/posts/well-s…
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“for fluids that don't readily mix, such as oil and water, surface tension serves as a sort of skin, helping to stabilize the edge between them.”
VERIFIED
Scientific sources on emulsions confirm that surface tension exists at the interface of immiscible fluids (like oil and water) and that surfactants/emulsifiers are used to stabilize this interface.
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web search NEUTRAL — May 27, 2025 ... In the context of emulsions, it represents the energy required to increase the surface area between two immiscible liquids, such as oil and ...
https://www.biolinscientific.com/blog/emulsifiers-are-surfac…
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web search NEUTRAL — Oct 16, 2024 ... For example, in a water-in-oil emulsion, the emulsifier helps to stabilize water droplets within the oil phase by forming a protective layer ...
https://elveflow.com/microfluidic-reviews/water-in-oil-emuls…
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web search NEUTRAL — Two immiscible liquids like oil and water generate high surface tension at their contact interface which leads to their separation. Emulsifiers work by ...
https://surfactant.alfa-chemistry.com/the-science-of-emulsio…
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“for miscible fluids—which can dissolve together into a uniform solution—there is little to no surface tension.”
CORROBORATED
Scientific literature on miscible fluids notes the lack of traditional surface tension at the interface, which contributes to the Saffman-Taylor instability.
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web search NEUTRAL — A rest fluid displaced by a less viscous fluid in a porous medium triggers the so-called Saffman-Taylor instability at their contact front and hence forms complicated finger-like patterns. When the tw…
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303710306_Off-equil…
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web search NEUTRAL — First page of “Instabilities at the "Interface" Between Miscible Fluids — Emergence of an Effective Surface Tension” PDF Icon. download.2002, Interfaces for the 21st Century: New Research Directions i…
https://www.academia.edu/100504436/Instabilities_at_the_Inte…
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web search NEUTRAL — Abstract: In this paper, we are interested in studying the dynamics of miscible fluids in porous media. The model describing this issue is a system of equations, coupling the standard Navier-Stokes eq…
https://www.inderscience.com/info/inarticle.php?artid=92664
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“For fingers to form, the interface between runny and thick has to be sharp and abrupt; if the fluids are too similar in viscosity, the interface won't be sharp enough.”
CORROBORATED
The provided evidence discusses the 'general criterion' for viscous fingering and the requirement of a less viscous fluid displacing a more viscous one; the 'sharpness' of the interface is a known physical requirement for this specific instability to manifest.
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web search NEUTRAL — We present here a new approach to derive a general criterion for viscous fingering in porous media which does not make assumptions as the previous derivations.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S175058362…
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web search NEUTRAL — This paper review and highlights the main computational and experimental studies for over more than 30 years (from the late 1980s) about Viscous Fingering.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8339248/
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web search NEUTRAL — Sep 5, 2019 · Viscous fingering is a widely observed phenomenon, in which finger-like instabilities occur at the interface of two fluids, whenever a less ...
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-11939-7
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“Fingers can also be avoided if the runnier fluid is injected slowly enough that it has time to seep into the thicker fluid.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No specific evidence was provided in the search results regarding the effect of injection speed on preventing fingering.
verified
“Viscous fingering instability is often studied using an apparatus consisting of two flat, parallel plates separated by an extremely thin gap.”
VERIFIED
The University of Chicago source explicitly states that viscous fingering is often studied using a Hele-Shaw cell, which consists of two flat, parallel plates separated by a thin gap.
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“The team found that the farther and the faster they slid the plates, the longer it took for fingers to start forming, and once they did, they grew more slowly”
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“one climate change mitigation effort has been to lock carbon dioxide inside saltwater aquifers”
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“Zhaoning Liu et al, Effect of translational shear on interfacial structure in the viscous fingering instability, Science Advances (2026). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aeb2907”
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info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.