Reversible reactive flow displacements in homogeneous porous media

The viscous fingering instability of miscible flow displacements in a homogeneous porous media is examined in the case involving reversible chemical reactions between the fluids. The problem is formulated using continuity equation, Darcy's law, and volume-averaged forms of convectiondiffusion- reaction equation for mass balance. Full nonlinear simulations using a pseudo-spectral method combined with semi-implicit finite-difference time-stepping algorithm, allowed to analyze the mechanisms of fingering instability that result from the dependence of the fluids viscosities on the concentrations of the different species. In particular, the study examined the effects of varying important parameters namely the Damkohler number that represents the ratio of the hydrodynamic and chemical characteristic time scales, and the chemical reversibility coefficient, and analyzed the resulting changes in the finger structures.