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Correction to “Prediction of fingering in porous media”
Author(s) -
Javaux Mathieu,
Wang Zhi,
Feyen Jan,
Elrick David,
Vanclooster Marnik
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/2004wr003831
Subject(s) - wetting , porous medium , viscous fingering , richards equation , surface tension , fluid dynamics , flow (mathematics) , calculus (dental) , mathematics , thermodynamics , mechanics , porosity , geotechnical engineering , physics , geology , medicine , dentistry , water content
[1] In the paper ‘‘Prediction of fingering in porous media’’ by Zhi Wang, Jan Feyen, and David E. Elrick (Water Resources Research 34(9), 2183–2190, 1998), the authors developed 24 specific criteria for predicting unstable flow in porous media, based on the Chuoke equation [Chuoke et al., 1959]. However, some of the results were inconsistent with predictions by others. For instance, de Rooij [2000] noted that the Wang criteria showed unstable flow for overly rapid upward flow in contrary to Philip’s [1975] theory that predicted an unconditionally stable flow. These discrepancies resulted from three mistakes in the theoretical development, namely, (1) an inconsistency in the transcription of the Chuoke equation (equation (1) in the original paper), (2) a discrepancy between the definition of s* compared to the Chuoke definition (leading to a wrong equation (3a)) and, (3) sign errors in the development of the criteria (Table 1). In the following, we give the correct development and revise the 24 stability criteria of Wang et al. [1998].