KINETICS OF DOMAIN GROWTH AND WETTING IN A MODEL POROUS-MEDIUM

We report results from computer simulations of the kinetics of domain growth and wetting in a binary liquid mixture contained inside a model porous medium which has an interconnected and tortuous structure resembling Vycor glass. We find that the growth process slows down dramatically when the average size of the domains is comparable to the aver-age pore radius and dynamical scaling breaks down at late stages. We argue that the random-field model cannot be invoked to explain these results. On the other hand, the single-pore model seems to be reasonably successful in explaining the source of this slow growth.