Nonlinear fingering dynamics of reaction-diffusion acidity fronts: Self-similar scaling and influence of differential diffusion

Nonlinear interactions between chemical reactions and buoyancy-driven Rayleigh-Taylor instability of reaction-diffusion acidity fronts of the chlorite-tetrathionate (CT) reaction are studied theoretically in a vertical Hele-Shaw cell or a porous medium. To do so, we perform a numerical integration of a two-variable reaction-diffusion model of the CT system coupled through an advection term to Darcy's law ruling the evolution of the velocity field of the fluid. The fingering dynamics of these chemical fronts is characterized by the appearance of several fingers at onset. These fingers then undergo coarsening and eventually merge to form one single symmetric finger. We study this asymptotic dynamics as a function of the three dimensionless parameters of the problem, i.e., the Damkohler number Da, the diffusivity ratio delta of the two chemical species, and the Rayleigh number Ra constructed here on the basis of the width L-y of the system. For moderate values of Ra, the asymptotic single finger is shown to have self-similar scaling properties while above a given value of Ra, which depends on the other values of the parameters, tip splitting comes into play. Increasing the difference of diffusivities of the two chemical species (i.e., increasing delta) leads to more efficient coarsening and smaller asymptotic fingers. Experimental procedures to verify our predictions are proposed. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.