Planar viscous-fingering dispersion relation ($\sigma (\alpha )$)

For two fluids with dynamic viscosities ${\mu }_1<{\mu }_2$, uniform permeability of a porous medium $k$, porosity $\varphi$, and imposed Darcy velocity $U$, the Saffman–Taylor instability of a planar interface has growth rate $\sigma =\alpha U({\mu }_2-{\mu }_1)/[\varphi ({\mu }_2+{\mu }_1)]$ without capillarity. With constant interfacial tension $\gamma$ and the stabilizing pressure-jump convention, a perturbation of transverse wavenumber $\alpha >0$ instead hasThe fastest-growing mode satisfies ${\alpha }_m^2=({\mu }_2-{\mu }_1)U/(3k\gamma )$.

Suppose the apparent capillary pressure is $p_1-p_2=\gamma (1+\beta x)({\kappa }_0+\nabla \cdot \mathbf{n})$, with normal towards the displaced fluid and positive apparent tension at the flat front $x=X$. Linearizing the Darcy law interface problem gives the local growth rateThe pressure increase experienced by a forward protrusion is stabilizing when ${\kappa }_0\beta >0$. It suppresses every positive wavenumber when $U\le k\gamma {\kappa }_0\beta /({\mu }_2-{\mu }_1)$. For a fixed spatial gradient, $X=Ut/\varphi$ makes the rate time dependent; constant exponential growth is a frozen-position approximation.