Fall and break-up of viscous miscible drops in a Hele-Shaw cell

C. Toupoint, S. Joubaud and B.R. Sutherland

We investigate the fall in a Hele-Shaw cell of viscous miscible drops in a more viscous ambient fluid with negligible diffusivity compared to the kinematic viscosity of the fluids. We measure the drop shape, thickness and velocity for various viscosity and density ratios. The elongation of the drops is found to increase quadratically with the ratio of the drop and ambient fluid viscosity. The thickness of the drop is shown to be approximately half the thickness of the gap of the Hele-Shaw cell. We develop a new theoretical expression of the drop falling velocity, taking into account the elongation and thickness of the drop. This agrees well with observations after multiplying by an empirically determined constant. In some circumstances the drops break up, either because of defects advected downwards within the drop or by instability of the shape of the drop.