InterPore2026

Role of structural heterogeneity in interface propagation through disordered media

21 May 2026, 10:05

1h 30m

Poster Presentation (MS06) Interfacial phenomena across scales Poster

Speaker

Mr Viswakannan R K (Department of Physics, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, Hyderabad Campus)

Description

Predicting the dynamics of an interface moving through a disordered medium is a long-standing interdisciplinary scientific challenge. In physics, it is a key ingredient in modelling fluid displacements in porous and fractured media. To understand such dynamics, insight into how the disorder in the material influences micro-scale pinning and depinning events of the interface is vital. These pinning events give rise to avalanches or Haines jumps, which govern the interface propagation in the continuum scale. Such knowledge can be useful in a wide range of applications, including enhanced oil recovery and CO2 sequestration.

In this work, we have used a physically sound framework, in the form of an interface model, to study fluid displacement and upscaling in disordered media. We have explored a model similar to the KPZ model, which includes a quantitative description of the underlying microscopic mechanisms like interface roughness to provide the macroscopic nonlinear, out-of-equilibrium behaviour. Local properties of the propagating interface - the interface length, global width, and roughness exponent - are studied as a function of the disorder and system size. System size study of these properties is used to understand the upscaling behaviour in such a disordered system. Finally, a study of the avalanche size distribution has been carried out to understand the effect of the disorder and the system size scaling.