Nonlinear instability of Hele-Shaw flows with smooth viscous profiles

We rigorously derive nonlinear instability of Hele-Shaw flows moving with a constant velocity in the presence of smooth viscosity profiles where the viscosity upstream is lower than the viscosity downstream. This is a single-layer problem without any material interface. The instability of the basic flow is driven by a viscosity gradient as opposed to conventional interfacial Saffman–Taylor instability where the instability is driven by a viscosity jump across the interface. Existing analytical techniques are used in this paper to establish nonlinear instability.