Spiral pattern in a radial displacement involving a reaction-producing gel.
We have shown experimentally that the pattern created by the displacement of a more viscous fluid by a less viscous one in a radial Hele-Shaw cell develops not radially but spirally when a more viscous sodium polyacrylate solution is displaced by a less viscous trivalent iron ion (Fe3+) solution with a sufficiently high concentration of Fe3+ . Another experiment revealed that an instantaneous chemical reaction takes place between the two fluids, and at high Fe3+ concentrations it produces a film of the gel at the contact plane. The gel film is proposed to be responsible for the spiral pattern.
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, Nagoya Institute of Technology, Gokiso-cho, Showa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, 466-8555, Japan.
Yuichiro
Y
Nagatsu
Atsushi
A
Hayashi
Mitsumasa
M
Ban
Yoshihito
Y
Kato
Yutaka
Y
Tada