Experimental study on moving boundaries of fluid flow in porous media

Researches on the boundary shape of fluid flow in porous media play an important role in engineering practices, such as petroleum exploitation, nuclear waste disposal and groundwater contamination. In this paper, six types of artificial porous samples (emery jade) with different porosities are manufactured. With the background of slow flow in porous media, laboratory experiments are carried out by observing the movement of five types of fluids with different dynamic viscosities in various types of porous media. A digital video recorder is employed to record the complete process of the fluid flow in the porous media. Based on the digital photos of the moving boundaries of fluid flow in porous media, the average displacement and fractal dimension of the moving boundary are estimated for different combinations of porosity and dynamic viscosity. Moreover, the evolution behavior of the average velocity and fractal dimension of the moving boundary with time is known. The statistical relations of the average velocity, the fractal dimension of the moving boundary and the porosity of porous media and the dynamic viscosity of fluids are proposed in this paper. It is shown that the front shape of the moving boundary of fluid flow in porous media is an integrated result of the porosity of porous media and the dynamic viscosity of fluids.