Search results for "Preferential flow"

Nonmonotone Saturation Profiles for Hydrostatic Equilibrium in Homogeneous Porous Media

2012

Nonmonotonic saturation profiles (saturation overshoot) occur as travelling waves in gravity driven fingering. They seem important for preferential flow mechanisms and have found much attention recently. Here, we predict them even for hydrostatic equilibrium when all velocities vanish. We suggest that hysteresis suffices to explain the effect. Recently, the observation of nonmonotonicity of traveling wave solutions for saturation profiles during constant-flux infiltration experiments has highlighted the shortcomings of the traditional, seventy year old mathematical model for immiscible displacement in porous media. Several recent modifications have been proposed to explain these observation…