 Thermal-front retardation in Darcy flow

If a thermal front has speed $Y^{\prime }=\Gamma U$ with $U$ the Darcy velocity, while a material front has speed $X^{\prime }=U/\varphi$, their position ratio from coincident initial locations is $Y/X=\Gamma \varphi$. Calling a retardation factor the ratio to pore velocity instead would give $Y/X=\Gamma$; these conventions must not be mixed. With cold viscosity $\mu$ and heated viscosity $b\mu$, the displacement's effective viscosity is ${\mu }_{\mathrm{eff}}=\mu [b-(b-1)\Gamma \varphi ]$. In the pressure resistance the cold layer has length $Y$, the hot injected layer has length $X-Y$, and the displaced layer has length $L-X$.