Growth-direction dependence of steady-state Saffman-Taylor flow in an anisotropic Hele-Shaw cell

Selection of steady-state fingers has been measured in a Hele-Shaw cell perturbed by having a square lattice etched onto one of the plates. Flows at different orientations θ between the direction of flow and the lattice axes have been studied, in a wide range of observable tip velocities where the perturbation was made microscopic in the sense that the capillary length of the flow was much greater than the etched lattice cell size. The full range of dynamically interesting angles for the square lattice was examined, and above a threshold, the microscopic perturbation always results in wider fingers than are selected in the unperturbed case. There is some dependence of the width of the fingers on the orientation of the flow, with fingers at θ=0 degree being the widest with respect to the unperturbed fingers, and fingers at 45 degree being the least wide, although still wider than the unperturbed fingers. All observed solutions are symmetric, centered in the channel, and have the relation between tip-curvature and finger width expected of members of the Saffman-Taylor family of solutions. Selected solutions narrow again at tip velocities where the perturbation can no longer be considered microscopic. copyright 1996 The American Physical Society