Electrokinetic Control of Viscous Fingering

We present a theory of the interfacial stability of two immiscible electrolytes under the coupled action of pressure gradients and electric fields in a Hele-Shaw cell or porous medium. Mathematically, our theory describes a phenomenon of "vector Laplacian growth," in which the interface moves in response to the gradient of a vector-valued potential function through a generalized mobility tensor. Physically, we extend the classical Saffman-Taylor problem to electrolytes by incorporating electrokinetic (EK) phenomena. A surprising prediction is that viscous fingering can be controlled by varying the injection ratio of electric current to flow rate. Beyond a critical injection ratio, stability depends only upon the relative direction of flow and current, regardless of the viscosity ratio. Possible applications include porous materials processing, electrically enhanced oil recovery, and EK remediation of contaminated soils.