Introduction[edit]

Many day to day processes involve the movement of fluids across porous medium. For example
sponge, drying of wood, filtration of water by using sand and/or other porous materials. As commonly
observed, some fluid flows through the media while some mass of the fluid is stored in the pores
present in the media. The knowledge of how the fluid diffuses through these materials and what are
the factors upon which the diffusion depends is really useful for Engineering practices.

Governing Law[edit]
The basic law governing the flow of fluids through porous media is Darcy's Law, which was
formulated by the French civil engineer Henry Darcy in 1856 on the basis of his experiments on
vertical water filtration through sand beds.[1] According to which,

.
Where,
= Volumetric flow rate [m3/s]
= Permeability of porous medium[m2]. The permeability is a function of material type, and also
varies with stress, temperature, etc.
= Fluid viscosity[Pa.s]
= Cross-sectional area of Porous medium[m2]
= Pressure drop across medium [Pa]
= Length of sample[m]
For transient processes in which the flux varies from point to-point, the following differential form
of Darcys law is used.

Mass Conservation[edit]
Mass conservation of fluid across the porous medium involves the basic principle that,
Mass flux In - Mass flux Out = Increase in amount stored by medium.[2] Which means
that total mass of the fluid is always conserved.
In mathematical form, considering a time period from
from

to

and

to

being the mass stored by the medium.

,length of porous medium

, where

is the pore volume of the medium between

is the density. So,

Where

and

and

is the number of pores in

the medium.
Dividing both sides by

, while

, For 1-Dimensional linear flow in porous

medium:

For 3-Dimensional, equation can be written

as
The mathematical operation on the left-hand side of this equation is known as the
divergence of

; it represents the rate at which fluid diverges from a given region, per unit

volume.

Diffusion Equation[edit]
Using product rule(and chain rule) on right hand side of the above mass conservation
equation (i),

Where,

= compressibility of the fluid and

Material Type

= compressibility of porous medium.[3]

Compressibility (m2N1 or Pa1)[4]

Clay

106 - 108

Sand

107 - 109

Gravel

108 - 1010

Jointed rock

108 - 1010

Sound Rock

109 - 1011

Water (beta)

4.4 x 1010

Now considering the left hand side of the mass conservation equation, which is given
by Darcy's Law as

Equating the results obtained in

&

, we

get:
.
The second term on the left side is usually negligible , So we obtain the diffusion equation in
1-Dimension as

Where

[5]

References[edit]
1. Jump up^ http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF01036523
2. Jump up^ Bear, Jacob. Dynamics of fluids in Porous Media.
3. Jump up^ Ohirhian, Peter. "Steady State Compressible Fluid Flow in Porous Media".
4. Jump up^ https://eng.ucmerced.edu/people/jfisher/.../EnveEss110_20081110.pdf
5. Jump up^ Zimmerman, Dr. R.W. "Flow in porous media". imperial.ac.uk.