Bauyrzhan K. Primkulov

Contact lines, where fluid interfaces meet solid surfaces, pose a fundamental challenge to modeling fluid-fluid displacement in confined geometries, as they violate the classical no-slip boundary condition. Recent experiments reveal that contact-line motion in a capillary tube produces compact displacement at low flow rates and unstable fingering at high flow rates. We present a phase-field model with a novel formulation of the boundary wetting conditions. Our model captures the equilibrium configurations at arbitrary wettability, and also predicts dynamic configurations, including wetting transitions, thin-film formation and interface pinch-off, in quantitative agreement with experiments.

The Kapitza-Dirac effect is the diffraction of quantum particles by a standing wave of light. We here report an analogous phenomenon in pilot-wave hydrodynamics, wherein droplets walking across the surface of a vibrating liquid bath are deflected by a standing Faraday wave. We show that, in certain parameter regimes, the statistical distribution of the droplet deflection angles reveals a diffraction pattern reminiscent of that observed in the Kapitza-Dirac effect. Through experiments and simulations, we show that the diffraction pattern results from the complex interactions of the droplets with the standing wave. Our study highlights nonresonant effects associated with the detuning of the droplet bouncing and the bath vibration, which are shown to lead to drop speed variations and droplet sorting according to the droplet's phase of impact. We discuss the similarities and differences between our hydrodynamic system and the discrete and continuum interpretations of the Kapitza-Dirac effect, and introduce the notion of ponderomotive effects in pilot-wave hydrodynamics.

Pilot-wave hydrodynamics concerns the dynamics of droplets walking on a vibrating liquid bath, and forms the basis for the field of hydrodynamic quantum analogs. We here investigate a theoretical model that captures both vertical and horizontal drop dynamics. The model provides new rationale for a number of phenomena, including colinear swaying, intermittent walking, and chaotic speed oscillations, all of which are linked to variability in the droplet's impact phase. Our study also highlights the degeneracy in the droplet's vertical dynamics, consideration of which is essential for understanding the dynamics of droplets in confined geometries and interacting with standing Faraday waves.

The Kapitza-Dirac effect is the diffraction of quantum particles by a standing wave of light. We here report an analogous phenomenon in pilot-wave hydrodynamics, wherein droplets walking across the surface of a vibrating liquid bath are deflected by a standing Faraday wave. We show that, in certain parameter regimes, the statistical distribution of the droplet deflection angles reveals a diffraction pattern reminiscent of that observed in the Kapitza-Dirac effect. Through experiments and simulations, we show that the diffraction pattern results from the complex interactions of the droplets with the standing wave. Our study highlights non-resonant effects associated with the detuning of the droplet bouncing and the bath vibration, which are shown to lead to drop speed variations and droplet sorting according to the droplet's phase of impact. We discuss the similarities and differences between our hydrodynamic system and the discrete and continuum interpretations of the Kapitza-Dirac effect, and introduce the notion of ponderomotive effects in pilot-wave hydrodynamics.

Pilot-wave hydrodynamics concerns the dynamics of 'walkers,' droplets walking on a vibrating bath, and has provided the basis for the burgeoning field of hydrodynamic quantum analogs. We here explore a theoretical model of pilot-wave hydrodynamics that relaxes the simplifying assumption of resonance between the droplet and its pilot wave, specifically the assumption of a fixed impact phase between the bouncing drop and its wave field. The model captures both the vertical and horizontal dynamics of the drop, allowing one to examine non-resonant effects for both free and constrained walkers. The model provides new rationale for a number of previously reported but poorly understood features of free walker motion in pilot-wave hydrodynamics, including colinear swaying at the onset of motion, intermittent walking, and chaotic speed oscillations, all of which are accompanied by sporadic changes in the impact phase of the bouncing drop. The model also highlights the degeneracy in the droplets' vertical dynamics, specifically, the possibility of two distinct bouncing phases and of switching between the two. Consideration of this degeneracy is critical to understanding the droplet dynamics and statistics emerging in confined geometries at high memory and the interaction of walking droplets with standing Faraday waves.

This study elucidates the origin of traveling waves observed on the lower surface of a levitating droplet rolling on a rotating cylindrical drum. The research begins with a simplified model of the lubrication flow beneath the droplet and examines the linear stability of this base state to Tollmien--Schlichting-type perturbations. By solving the Orr-Sommerfeld equation perturbatively, the study predicts the wavelength and phase velocity of the most unstable mode, yielding good agreement with experimental observations.

In recent experiments, Sawaguchi et al. directly probed the lubrication layer of air beneath a droplet levitating inside a rotating cylindrical drum. For small rotation rates of the drum, the lubrication film beneath the drop adopted a steady shape, while at higher rotation rates, travelling waves propagated along the drop's lower surface with roughly half the wall velocity. We here rationalize the physical origin of these waves. We begin with a simplified model of the lubrication flow beneath the droplet, and examine the linear stability of this base state to perturbations of the Tollmien--Schlichting type. Our developments lead to the Orr-Sommerfeld equation (OSE), whose eigenvalues give the growth rates and phase speeds of the perturbations. By considering wavelengths long relative to the lubrication film thickness, we solve the OSE perturbatively and so deduce the wavelength and phase velocity of the most unstable mode. We find satisfactory agreement between experiment and theory over the parameter regime considered in the laboratory.

We present a theoretical study of viscous slug motion inside a microscopically rough capillary tube, where pronounced stick–slip motion can emerge at slow displacement rates. The mathematical description of this intermittent motion can be reduced to a system of ordinary differential equations, which also describe the motion of a pendulum inside a fluid-filled rotating drum. We use this analogy to show that the stick–slip motion transitions to steady sliding at high displacement rates. We characterize this crossover with a simple scaling relation and show that the crossover is accompanied by a shift in the dominant energy dissipation mechanisms within the system.

We study numerically the characteristics of fluid–fluid displacement in simple mixed-wet porous micromodels using a dynamic pore network model. The porous micromodel consists of distinct water-wet and oil-wet regions, whose fractions are varied systematically to yield a variety of displacement patterns over a wide range of capillary numbers. We find that the impact of mixed-wettability is most prominent at low capillary numbers, and it depends on the complex interplay between wettability fraction and the intrinsic contact angle of the water-wet regions. For example, the fractal dimension of the displacement pattern is a monotonically increasing function of wettability fraction in flow cells with strongly water-wet clusters, but it becomes non-monotonic with respect to wettability fraction in flow cells with weakly water-wet clusters. Additionally, mixed-wettability also manifests itself in the injection pressure signature, which exhibits fluctuations especially at low wettability fraction. Specifically, preferential filling of water-wet regions leads to reduced effective permeability and higher injection pressure, even at vanishingly small capillary numbers. Finally, we demonstrate that scaling analyses based on a weighted average description of the overall wetting state of the mixed-wet system can effectively capture the variations in observed displacement pattern morphology.

We study the characteristics of fluid-fluid displacement in simple mixed-wet porous micromodels numerically using a dynamic pore network model. The porous micromodel consists of distinct water-wet and oil-wet regions, whose fractions are systematically varied to yield a variety of displacement patterns over a wide range of capillary numbers. We find that the impact of mixed-wettability is most prominent at low capillary number, and it depends on the complex interplay between wettability fraction and the intrinsic contact angle of the water-wet regions. For example, the fractal dimension of the displacement pattern is a monotonically increasing function of wettability fraction in flow cells with strongly water-wet clusters, but it becomes non-monotonic with respect to wettability fraction in flow cells with weakly water-wet clusters. Additionally, mixed-wettability also manifests itself in the injection-pressure signature, which exhibits fluctuations especially at low wettability fraction. Specifically, preferential filling of water-wet regions leads to reduced effective permeability and higher injection pressure, even at vanishingly small capillary numbers. Finally, we demonstrate that scaling analyses based on a weighted average description of the overall wetting state of the mixed-wet system can effectively capture the variations in observed displacement pattern morphology.

Wettability exerts fundamental control over multiphase flow in porous media, which has been extensively studied in uniform-wet porous media. In contrast, multiphase flow in mixed-wet porous media is less well-understood. We combine microfluidic experiments and pore-scale simulations to study the displacement of oil by water in a mostly oil-wet porous media patterned with discrete water-wet clusters. Our work demonstrates the complex nature of wettability control in mixed-wet porous media, and it presents experimental and numerical platforms upon which further insights can be drawn.