Cooperative mobilization of microemulsion in porous media

We study the cooperatives dynamics of monodisperse droplets in 2D porous media using confocal microscopy and particle tracking. The size of the droplets are of the same order of the pore sizes of the medium and are generated on demand and injected into the porous media.

We measure the dynamics of the carrier fluid at pore level and track the mobilization of droplets simultaneously. We find that upon arrival or mobilization of one droplet, large pressure fluctuations emerge across neighboring pores. The pressure fluctuations result in cooperative mobilization of droplets. The behavior of emulsions within porous media is an important issue in industry and environmental studies such as water remediation.