0263-8762/97/$10.00+0.

00

IChem E

Institution of Chemical Engineers

FLUID FLOW THROUGH GRANULAR BEDS*

By P. C. CARMAN, Ph.D. (Graduate)
INTRODUCTION

The laws of the flow of fluids through porous

media have several aspects of practical importance.
They are essential in the calculation of the movements of ground waters, of petroleum, and of natural
gas through sand and rock, in deciding the extent of
seepage through the subsoil of dams and of large
buildings, and in determining the permeability of
concrete and of other building materials. To the
chemical engineer, such laws form the basis of design
of packed towers and of converters containing granular catalysts, as in the contact process for sulphuric
acid, or they allow the interpretation of data from
small models in the design of full-scale plant.l
Further, the fundamental laws of filtration, both for
the cake and for the filter medium, rest on the study
of flow through porous media. A brief review of
earlier work on this latter aspect has been made by
Underwood,2 and a more recent and comprehensive
review is that of Siegel, 3 who covers the whole field
of consolidated masses such as sandstones and porous
earthenware, and of unconsolidated masses such as
sands, that is, the granular beds of the kind considered
in this paper.
The following review deals with the simpler case
of unconsolidated grains and is mainly concerned
with the importance of the method of plotting
by dimensionless groups introduced by Blake. 4 A
further object is to suggest the application of
permeability measurements to the determination of
the surface of powders.
TIlE D'ARCY LAW AND ITS DERIVATIVES
The fundamental equation of permeability is that
of D'Arcy,5 an empirical equation based on measurements of the flow of water through sands and sandstones, and which may be represented as
u =K.

6. Pt
L

(I)

where K is the coefficient of permeability, or the

permeability, and is the rate of flow of water across
a unit cube of the sand at unit pressure head. The
law is closely analogous to Poiseuille's law for the
flow of a viscous fluid through a circular capillary,
namely,
d.2
L1p. g
u = 32'1} . - L " (2)
and much work has rested on the assumption that a
granular bed is analogous to a group of capillaries
Paper received May, 1937.
t A Jist of symbols is given at the end of the paper.
1 Walker, Lewis and McAdams, "Principles of Chemical
Engineering," Second Edition, p. 116, McGraw-Hill Book
Co., N.Y., 1927.
2 A. J. V. Underwood, in "Filtration and Filters," by J. A.
Pickard, page 87, Benn Bros., London, 1929.
3 Siegel, in " Der Chemie Ingenieur," Band I, Zweite Teil,
p. 109, etc., Leipzig, 1933.
Blake, Trans. Amer. Inst. Chem. Engrs., 1922, 14, 415.
H. P. G. D'Arcy, "Les Fontaines Publiques de Ill. Ville
de Dijon," Victor Dalmont, Paris, 1856.

parallel to the direction of flow and of diameter, d.

on the nature and the size of these equivalent
capIllafles and whether they have any physical meaning have differed considerably.
The first extension of the simple D'Arcy law was
made. by Dupuit, 6 who realised that the apparent
velOCIty, u, must be less than the actual velocity in
the pores. If the pore-space in the bed be considered
?,S e~en~y distr~buted, the porosity of a layer of
mfimtesImal thlCkness normal to the direction of
flow will be equal to the porosity, , of the bed as a
whole. As, for such a layer, the fractional free volume
will be equal to the fractional free area, the true
The.vie~s

velocity of flow must be~. Dupuit therefore gave

!:iP

= K1 L

. . . . . . . . .. . . ..

(3)

The full importance of porosity was later realised

by Slichter,' whose treatment represents the first
real attempt to derive expressions for the equivalent
c~annels from the general geometry of a bed of equallySIzed sphere~. He assumed the average cross-sections
of the eqUlvale~t channels to be triangular, and
deduced expresslOns for the cross sectional area and
the length of these channels in terms of particle size
and of porosity. Then, applying a correcting factor
to Poiseuille's law to allow for flow through a channel
of tri.a~gular cross section, he calculated the permeabIht,y of the bed. The resulting equation is
u=1O.2

d2 M
'1}I;
K2

(4)

where K 2 is a function of , varying from 843 for

=026 to 12,8 for =046. SmithS has summarised
Slichter's treatment and revised it in a few details
to give better agreement with experiment.
'
A mo~ification of Slichter's treatment was made by
Terzaghl,9 who deduced a relationship between
porosity and permeability in close agreement with that
of Slich!'Cr, and, by introducing an empirical constant,
h~obtame~ a formula.in moderately good agreement
WIth experIment. ThIS formula is
-0'13)2 d2 M
u=Ka ( Vl- ".;JY .. ,
(5)
where K 3 is an empirical constant with values between
603 and 105 for all sands. A somewhat similar
treat~ent was attempted by Bou8sinesq,1 but his
equatIon has little interest as it contains no general
expression for the effect of porosity.
The main drawback to Slichter's treatment is that
he ?,ssumed a generalised mode of packing for spheres,
whlCh Darapskyll has later shown to be impossible,
6 A. J. E. J. Dupuit, "Etudes Theoretiques et Pratiques
sur Ie Mouvement des Eaux," 1863.
1 Slichter, Nineteenth Ann. Rep. U.S. Geol. Surv. 1897-8
2,305.
'
,
8 Smith, Physics, 1932, 3, 139.
Tenaghi, Eng. New8 Ree., 1925,95, 832.
10 Boussinesq, C. R. Acad. Sci., 1914,159,390 and 519
U Darapsky, Z. Math. Phys., 1912,80, 170.
.

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CARMAN.-FLUID FLOW

T~ROUGH

an opinion confirmed in a recent criticism of Slichter's

assumptions by Graton and Fraser. 12 Darapsky
made a detailed study of flow through spheres in the
tightest mode of packing, lO=026, and this was carried
further by Burmester,13 but neither derived expressions of general applicability.
In contrast to the analogy of equivalent channels,
the work of Emersleben14 should be mentioned. In
his paper, it is assumed that the grains in a bed of
sand are equivalent to a group of equally spaced,
solid, circular cylinders, parallel to the direction of
flow. Thus, any section of the equivalent bed
normal to the flow shows the whole of the free space
inter-connected, which is a much closer approximation to the actual system of pores in a granular bed.
In his subsequent attempt to derive the D'Arcy law
from fundamental hydrodynamical equations, however, Emersleben arrived at permeabilities which
are of the wrong order and for which the variation
with porosity is much less than that found in experiment.
Up to the present, therefore, the purely mathematical treatment of Emersleben14 has not been
successful in providing a sound theoretical basis for
D'Arcy's law, nor has Slichter's7 geometrical treatment
of an idealised bed of spheres established the analogy
between Poiseuille's law and D'Arcy's law. Greater
success has been obtained by semi-empirical methods,
particularly the introduction by Blake 4 of plotting
by dimensionless groups.
In the correlation of flow through smooth circular
pipes, Stanton15 and his co-workers, following on the
work of Osborne Reynolds, have shown that a unique
plot is obtained if the dimensionless groups, ~
ud
p~
and ~, are plotted against one another, where
R =fri~ional force per unit area, and puede is called
7J

the Reynolds' number. For non-circular pipes,

Schiller16 has shown that, in the turbulent region, the
. PIotted agamst
.
pU"m
IS
. Stl'11 C1ose I'f - R
corre IatlOn
- 2 IS
-'-PUe
7J
_ cross-sectional area normal to flow
The f ac t or m - .
perimeter presented to fl'd
Ul
and is termed the mean hydraulic radius. For a
circular pipe, m =

~.

Since the cross-section of the

pipe is uniform, an alternative expression for

volume of fluid in pipe
m is
If this expression
surface presented to fluid'
is applied to a granular bed, m=~, and, accepting
Dupuit's assumption that the interstitial velocity
410c. cit.
7 loc. cit.
12 Graton and Fraser, J. Geol., 1935, 43, 785; also Fraser'
ibid, 1935, 43, 910.
13 Burmester, Z. angew. Math. Meeh., 1924, 4, 33.
H Emersleben, Phys. Z., 1925,26,601.
15 Stanton and Pannell, " Collected Researches," ,National
Physical Laboratory, Vol. II, 1914.
16 Schiller, Z. angew. Math. Meeh., 1923, 3, 2.

fRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937

GRANULAR BEDS.

U
. Iess groups, -RlO2
d -8'
pu are
equa Is -,
t h e d'ImenSlon
2 an
lO
pu
7J
.
'.
R=t;,.Py lO t;,.p.y. lO3
pu
obtamed, or, smce
L .8
' L . pu28 and 7J8 are
obtained. These are the groups recommended by
Blake 4 for plotting in the region of turbulent flow.
For viscous flow, the method of Blake gives rise
to the following form of the D'Arcy equation,
t;,.p.y. lO3
LU7J82 =k
(6)
Ue

lO3 t;,.p.y
or, U=kYJ 8 2 -y;-

(6a)

which is the equation later discussed by KozenyP

He derived this equation by assuming that the
granular bed is equivalent to a group of parallel,
similar channels, such that the total internal surface
and the total internal volume are equal to the particle
surface and to the pore-volume, respectively, in the
bed itself, that is, such that the value of m for these
channels is~.

He furthermore pointed out that,

owing to the tortuous character of the flow through a

granular bed, the length of the equivalent channels
should be L., where L e is greater than the depth, L,
of the bed. The general law of streamline flow through
a channel is
m 2 t;,.p.y
ue=k ' YJ' ----y;;(7)
o
where ko depends upon the shape of the cross-section
of the channel and has the following values for various
shapes.I8. 19, 20
TABLE 1.
Values of k o for Streamline Flow in Various Gross-Sections.

Shape.
I. Circle ..
2. Ellipses(a) Major axis = twice minor
axis.
(b) Major axis = 10 by minor
axis.
3. Rectangles(a) Length = breadth, i.e.,
square.
(b) Length=2 by breadth ..
(e) Length = 10 by breadth ..
(d) Length is infinite ..

4. Equilateral Triangle ..
Coresl9-

5. Pipes with
(a) Core set concentrically
(b) Core set eccentrically
(c)

ko

Remarks.

20

Poiseuille's law.

----

213
245
178
194
265
30
167,
20-30
1,7-3,0
1'2~2'0

Eccentricity <07
>07

This table shows that the mean hydraulic radius

does not affect correlation in the region of streamline
flow. On the other hand, for the shapes with most
10c. cit.
Kozeny, Ber. Wien Akad., 1927, 136a, 271.
18 Davies, Engineering, 1929, 128, 69 and 98.
19 Piercy, Hooper and Winney, Phil. Mag., 1933 (7), 15, 647.
20 Fair and Hatch, Trans. Amer. Wat. Wks. Assn., 1933,
25, 1551.
17

JUBILEE SUPPLEMENT-Trans IChemE, Vol 75, December 1997

S34

TRANSACTIONS.-INSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERf'.

bearing on the present problem, ko ranges only

between the limits 18 and 25. It is interesting to
note that ko=20 does not necessarily denote a
circular cross section, nor even a shape resembling a
circle. This probably explains much of the success
in applying Poiseuille's law for circular channels to
granular beds.
In substitution for U e and for L e in equation (7),
Kozeny followed Dupuit's assumption that the interstitial velocity,

U e,

is equal to '!!:-, but this should be

E

modified still further. If, in any section of the bed

normal to the direction of flow, the fractional free
area is , then the average velocity parallel to the
direction of flow must be~. As, however, the actual
E

path pursued by an element of the fluid is sinuous,

this represents only the component of velocity parallel
to the direction of flow. Thus, the time taken for
such an element of fluid to pass over a sinuous track
of

length,L.,atavelocity,~.~e,

corresponds to that

t,

taken to pass over a distance, L, at a velocity, '!!:-. In

short, the true value for u. is
therefore, becomes
U

= ~~2. t.~.g.

~.

and

equatio~ (7),

(tY

(8)

and it is only necessary to substitute m=~ to obtain

may be substituted in equation (6a), which then

takes the form
d2
E3
t.p.g
U = kYJ 36 (I-E)2'
(10)

-:r-

For non-spherical particles, a similar type of transformation may be made, in which

S=

(~) 2.

According to the experimental

work reviewed in the next section, the value of k,

and, therefore, of k o'

(i)

2,

is about 50.

Bartell and Osterhof21 derived equation (8) by

regarding the equivalent capillaries as circular, that is,
k o=2'0, and with the aid of Hitchcock's22 assumption
that

fe =~.

This gives k=2

o~r =4,9,

hand, it is doubtful whether

~,

(~)

angular particles, was able to test this expression

over the range E=045 to E=054 without changing
any of the other variables. His experiments established that

~=V2 is

portional to (1

Substance.

In dealing with beds of spheres,

6 (I-E)
S=-d21

22

(9)

Bartell and Osterhof, J. Phys. Chem., 1928, 32, 1553.

Hitchcock, J. Gen. Physiol., 1926,9, 755.

{l":'-

He also

E)2'

)2'

one obtains:

Range of e.

Range of
Range of
permeability permeability
(observed). (calculated) .
1 : 239

1: 239

..

1 : 359

1 : 347

Silica powder

0375-0,493

This is an even better confirmation than Donat's

results, and is carried out with particles of only about
a tenth of the size, Le., about 0003 cm. diameter.
TABLE

II.

Coulson's'5 Data, for Oil of 06---111 poise.

Diameter
of sphere.

nr in.
1

'8

In.

12 in.

l
4 'In.

much more probable value (see Appendix I). Itfollows

k
that kO=2 = 2,5, the value for a narrow, rectangular

EXPERIMENTAL VERIFICATION OF KOZENY'S EQUATION.

is proportional to

Black slate powder 0,574-0,660

channel; these values are adopted in subsequent

discussion.

measured the permeability of a bed of glass spheres

to water, and found the value of k to be 52.
Traxler and Baum 24 bear out Kozeny's relationship
between permeability and porosity. They plot on
semi-log paper and obtain an empirical exponential
equation. If, however, one tests these results by
Kozeny's theory, i.e., calculating permeability pro-

can be as large as

and it is believed by the writer that

(9a)

Donat23 , by taking a flint sand with flaky,

(I":'-E)2"

in good

agreement with experiment. As already noted, the

value, ko=20 is reasonable, though it does not
necessarily denote a circular channel. On the other

6(~~E)

In this, <p is a surface factor, which is unity for a

sphere, and, since a sphere has minimum specific
surface, is less than unity for all non-spherical shapes.
The most important expression in equation (10) is

equation (6a), hereafter called Kozeny's equation.

The only difference is that k is replaced by the
expression ko '

"

f.rin.

Porosity

k enrr.

0408
0396
0392
0405
0417

'----516
546
522
555
613

499
510
481
491
511

Average 498

A comprehensive set of experiments on streamline

flow through beds of spherical particles has been
provided by Coulson. 25 He used an oil, with a
Donat, Wasserkraft u. WasserwirtBch., 1929, 24, 228.
Traxler and Bawn, Physics, 1936, 7, 9-14.
Coulson, Univ. of London Ph.D. thesis, "The Streamline
Flow of Liquids through Beds composed of Spherical
Particles," 1935.
23

2<

TRANS. INSTNCHEM. ENGRS, VoI.15, 1937

JUBILEE SUPPLEMENT-Trans IChemE, Vol 75, December 1997

S35

CARMAN.-FLUID FLOW THROUGH GRANULAR BEDS.

viscosity of 06 to 11 poises (variation due to changes

in temperature), and carried out experiments with
in. to ~ in. steel balls in a tower of 2 in. diameter.
The sizes and porosities employed in his work are set
out in Table II, and, in the third column, the values
k calculated from equation (6) are given. These
values show a trend upwards as the size increases,
but, as Coulson pointed out, this is probably due
to friction at the wall, a term neglected in the
derivation of equation (6). The values of k eGTT in
the last column have been calculated by introducing the
.. 1f actor S'
8
empulca

-n

its initial volume. In this case, equation (9) must be

used in the differential form,
d2
3
pdP'(/
pu=G= kTJ . 36(1-j2'~
(11)
the mass velocity G being preferred to the linear
velocity as it remains constant from cross-section to
cross-section of the bed. Since, for an ideal gas,
!:..=Po=a constant, equation (9a) is more usefully
P Po

employed in the integrated form,

d2
3
D.(P2). {/ Po
G=kTJ' 36(1-)2'2L . Po

that is,

keGT1

D.p. g' 3. (~)

L
82
8
u TJ
1

(6b)

where 8 1 =total surface area per unit of packed

volume = 8

+~ .

The agreement in the values of

k eGTT in the last column indicates that this type of

correction is valid and that Coulson's experiments
give approximately the same value for k as do those
of Donat.
Schriever 26 passed a hot, gas-free oil, viscosity =0,05
poise, through a column packed with small glass
spheres, and varied and d. Neglecting the empirical
equation which he advanced for his data, and using
the data to calculate k, the values in Table III are
obtained. Practically all the values are within 3 %
of the mean, k=506.
TABLE

III.

Another form of equation (11) which is sometimes

used is

d2

01025

00528

0'04i3

0,02.';2

Porosit.y

o
D.(P2)=(po+P l ) (PO-PI) = (Po +P I ) . D.P.

TABLE IV.
Green and Ampt's Data for Small Glass Spheres.

Diamet.er (d)
em.

504
518
519
521

03889
03779
03689
03603

506
490
507
509

00709

03958
0384H
03715
03552

496
512
495
514

00497

03934
03806
0369
03597

484
506
4H5
516

Porosity

(d

----~-

00928

00319

Yiseosit.:v of gas-free oil (nujol) at. 99 C.=005 poise.

Kinemat.ie viscosit.y=00598 (cm. 2 )/sec.
Average value of k=506.

0025

Very different conditions were employed by Muskat

and Botset,27 who forced air through a bed of glass
beads at high pressure differences, so that during
its passage the air expanded to about thirty times

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937

When equation (12) is applied to the data of

Muskat and Botset27 for glass spheres of 00632 cm.
diam., and =0'338, where they lie in the region of
steamline flow, it is found that k=465. When it is
considered that, compared with Schriever's26 experiments, the ratio of viscosities is about 23 : I, that
has a considerably lower value, and that an oil is
being compared with a gas undergoing a high degree
of expansion, the agreement is remarkably good.

0387
03777
03653
03533

26 Sehriever, Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. Metall. Engrs., Pet..

Div., 1930, 86. 333.
27 Muskat. and Botset, Physics, IH31, 1. 27.

pm . D.P . (/

L
........ (13)
where pm is the density of the gas at the arithmetic
(Po+P l ) .
Po
pm
d
mean pressure
2
,Slllce 2P (PO+P ) an

( .)

G=kTJ' 36(1-)2'

Schriever's Data, for Small Glass Spheres.

Diamet.er (d)
ems.

(12)

21
26

loco cit.
loco cit.

k (Air).

k (Water).

--------

-----

572
0391
0370
587
03675
595
03635
574
520
0400
03925
535
545
0388
0384
537
555
0373
518
0376
0373
531
529
0363
521
0361
488
03895
0384
5'11
03795
502
518
03745
03705
515
0368
513
03625
520
03H05
529
0384
539
0379
53H
542
0373
0370
534
0366
549
Average value of k=534.

605

5'43

5'11

536
529
532

5M

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JUBILEE SUPPLEMENT-Trans IChemE, Vol 75, December 1997

TRANSACTIONS.-INSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS.

Some earlier experiments by Green and Ampt28

with small glass spheres cover approximately the
same range of values of d and of E as those of
Schriever,26 but the fluids employed were air and
water instead of oil (Table IV). Unlike the data
previously discussed, however, these were not
corrected for the abnormally high resistance encountered in the first few layers of packing, a correction which, as Blake 4 has pointed out, is important
in this type of experiment (see also Hatschek29 ).
Consequently, while the values of k are fairly consistent for each size of grain, there are considerable
variations in the values for grains of different sizes.
The average value, k=5'34, as would be expected,
is somewhat above the value k=50 set by more
recent work, with proper corrections, but is sufficiently
close to confirm Kozeny's equation.
.
Kozeny's Theory Applied to Measurements of
Capillary Rise.-Equation (8) assumes that a granular
bed can be studied as a group of equivalent channels
to which Poiseuille's law or its equivalent can be
applied. Kozeny's theory consists in the identification
of m, the mean hydraulic radius of an equivalent
channel with~, the " mean hydraulic radius" of the

bed. Interesting confirmation of this theory is

obtained from measurement of capillary rise in
powders. In a circular capillary, the capillary rise
for a liquid making zero contact angle with the
material of the capillary is related to the diameter by
de
U
4= pgh
(14)
Schultze30 has investigated a wide variety of noncircular capillaries, and his data are in agreement
with the general equation,
U

(15)

m= pgh

within an error of 10%. According to Kozeny's

theory, this equation should also be true for a
granular bed, and the value of the mean hydraulic
radius, m, should be~, whence,
E

pgh .... .......... (16)

or, substituting from equation (9a),

1>E =_u_
-:::6-;-;(1"---E)'
pghd . .. . .. . . . .. .. ... (17)
Hackett and Strettan,31 using a bed of spherical
grains, and four different liquids, found, for E=038,
an average value of 96 for pghd, whereas the
6(I-E)
U
calculated value,
, is 98.
E

Smith, Busang and Foote,32 tested a wide variety

of liquids in beds of sand containing nearly spherical
4 loco cit.
26 loco cit.
26 Green and Ampt, J. Agric. Sci., 1912-13, 5, No.1.
2' Hatschek, J.S.O.l., 1908, 27, 538.
30 Schultze, Kolloidzschr., l!125, 36, 65; 1925, 37, 10.
31 Hackett, and Stl'ettan, J. A[lr'ic. Sci., 1928,18, 671.
32 Smith, Busang and Foote, Physics, 1931, 1, 18.

particles, and though their data are somewhat

scattered, they nearly all lie within the limits given
by equation (17) between 1>=0,75 and 1>=0'90,
which are the probable limits of the surface factor, 1>,
for the particular sands. The range of E was approximately E=O34 to E=O44.
The only experiments in which both permeability
and capillary rise have been measured for the same
powder are those of Bartell and Osterhof.21 These
showed that the value of m calculated from
equation (8), assuming k= (~e

ko

(i) 2. 2 =5.0,

was practically the same as that calculated from

equation (15), as would be expected from the foregoing
results. As no measurement of the surface of the
powder was made, it is impossible to check that m
was equal to

S.
E

Alternative Theories.-In opposition to Kozeny's

treatment, many workers, e.g., Darapsky,ll Furnas,33
Chilton and Colburn,34 do not accept the Dupuit
assumption that the interstitial velocity is constant
from cross-section to cross-section of the bed, and
u
u Le
equaI to -, or to _. L'
It is evident, for instance,
E

that for spheres packed in the most loose arrangement (cubic packing), the porosity is =0476, while
the fractional free area in a plane of centres for any
layer is only 0215. In the plane parallel to this and
distant by half a diameter, the fractional free area is
unity. This would mean a great contraction and
expansion in every distance, d, for a fluid flowing
through the bed. On the other hand, Graton and
Fraser12 have pointed out that such packings should
offer different permeabilities according to the direction
of flow, whereas the characteristic of natural, granular
beds is that they present random packings, and that
the permeability is the same in all directions. In a
random packing, it may be assumed that the voids
are so evenly distributed throughout the bed that
the fractional free area at any cross-section is constant
and equal to the porosity, E.
Thus, instead of considering that the rate of flow
in a pore chan:qel is alternately increasing and
decreasing, it seems nearer the true state of random
packing to assume that it is constant. Within the
bed there cannot be any isolated pore channel, since
the whole system of voids is inter-connected so that
where the section of one void is decreasing in the
direction of flow the velocity does not increase, but
the excess of the fluid escapes to a neighbouring void,
the section of which is enlarging in the direction of
flow. While this emphasises the constancy of the
rate of flow at each point of the bed, it also makes the
sinuous character of the flow clear. It is obvious that
every flow-line of the fluid, in the continual division
and rejunction with other flow-lines, must follow a
loco cit.
1210c. cit.
21 10c. cit.
Furnas, Bull. U.S. Bur. Min., 1929, No. 307.
'4 Chilton and Colburn, J. Ind. Eng. Ohern., 1931,23, 913 ;
MacLaren White, Trans. Amer.1nBt. Ohern. Eng., 1935,31,390.
11

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937

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CARMAN.-FLUID FLOW THROUGH GRANULAR BEDS.

very tortuous path. As far as the length of the path

is concerned, and its influence on the interstitial
velocity, the correcting factor

~e

has

TABU; V.
Values of '" cnlculated from Permeability, using Kozeny's

Equation.

been intro-

duced. Later in this paper it will be necessary to

include another important effect, that is, the difference between flow in a curved channel and that in a
straight channel.
An interesting theory has been proposed by Burke
and Plummer,35 in which, instead of assuming the
granular bed to be equivalent to a group of parallel
channels, they regarded the total resistance of the
bed to be made up from the sum of the separate
resistances of the individual particles in it, as
measured from the rate of free fall. For a bed of
spheres, however, the resulting equation for streamline
flow is
e2 (I-e) !::>P'g
U = k 7J 8 2 ----y;. (18)
1

Average for various types

of sand.
Flint sand
Jagged.
Ottawa sand
Nearly
spherical.
Wilcox sand
Jagged.
Sand

has been sh~wn that u is proportional to (l':'e)2 and

not to -eI)' this equation must be abandoned.
( -e

Determination of the Surface of Powders.-Kozeny's

assumption that m=~ provides a convenient method
for determining S, that is,
S

=!.... = Epgh

m
a
by the capillary rise method, or

8=':"'=e /e!::>Pg
m

ty

5uYJL

(20)

Sand
Sand
Flint sand
Flint sand

shown to hold for irregular particles. Unfortunately,

there appear to be no published data suitable for
testing equation (20).
In equation (21), assuming k=5'0, independent
of particle shape, and substituting S = 6(~~e),
then 4> is given by
'f'
6(I-e) ~ 5u7JL
4> = - d !::>P"
(22)
E
e"g
The values of 4> calculated from the data available
in the literature are given in Table V.
The
classification, spherical, rounded, angular, jagged, has
been made on the basis of microphotographs presented
in the various papers. The values of 4> appear to be
consistent and they are in agreement with values
of 4> for typical powders, calculated from the microscopic measurements of Heywood 38 (Table VI).
Burke and Plummer, J. Ind. Eng. Chern., 1928,20, 1197.
3. Heywood, Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng., 1933, 125, 383.

35

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, VoI.15, 1937

065
095

"
"

060

TABLE

Chalmcrs, Taliaferro
and Bawlins."
Muskat and Botset."
Grcen and Ampt.'
Donat. 2 '

"
"

VI.

Values of '" calculated from Heywood's38 Microscopic

Measurements.
Substance and Nature of Grain.
Tungsten powder ..
Sand (rounded grains)
Crushed glass (jagged grains)
Cork ..
Pulverised coal
Natural coal dust (up to i in.)
Fusain fibres
Flue dust (fuscd, spherical)
Flue dust (fused aggregates)
Mica (flakes)

O'S\!
O'SI
065
069

073
065
038
089
055
028

It would appear, therefore, that k=50 is independent

of shape, so that equation (21) can be used for
calculating the surface of any type of powder.
TABLE VII.
Pirie's'o Results with Prisms and

(21)

by the permeability method. These equations,

however, have been tested only for spherical particles,
for which S is more easily calculated from d, that is,
6(I-e)
S = --d-' To serve a useful purpose, they must be

Fancher and Lewis. 3

075

(Nature
0n5
unknown.)
0'70-0'75
Angular.
Roundcd.
083
067
Jagged.
043
Jagged flakes.

.
.
.

......... (19)

where k 1 has the theoretical value k 1 =05. Since it

\\'orkers.

1>

----------

.
~
~
!::>P.g
thatrs, U=k .-.;j36(I-e)
L

Nature of
Grain.

Material.

Hexagonal prisms, 048 cm.

length by 047 em. dia.

"

"

Cubes 056 em. side

"
"

"
"

"

.
.
.

..
..
..

(:Ubp8.

ltcorr.

._--

0377

502

0426

428

402

0344
0397
0448

529
471
421

4n2
437
392

471

---

Unfortunately, there is almost complete lack of

experimental data for particles of regula'r, geometrical shape, and, therefore, of known specific
surface. Experiments of Uchida and Fujita 39 with
small Lessing rings indicated that, even though
these do not correlate with spherical particles in the
turbulent region, agreement is rapidly approached as
2. loc. (;it.

loe. cit.
loco cit.
3. Fancher and Lewis, J. Ind. Enq. Chem., In33, 25, 1I3H.
51 Chalmers, Taliaferro and Rawlins. Trans. Amer. Inst.1'.1in.
Metall. Eng., Pet. Div., 1932, 98, 375.
38 loc. cit.
39 Uchida and Fujita, J. Soc. Chern. Ind., Japan (suppl.
binding), 1934, 37, 724B and 791B.
00 J. M. Pirie, private communication.
27

28

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S38

TRANSACTIONS.-INSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS.

the streamline region is entered. As, however, only

a few of their experiments extend to the streamline
region, more definite evidence is required. Of much
greater importance are a few figures recently obtained
by Pirie 40, working entirely in the streamline region.
These are summarised in Table VII.
Apparently, while k is roughly of the same order
as for spheres, it is not constant for changes in
porosity, showing that a new factor has entered.
Possjbly, flat-sided shapes behave differently, since
many of the points of contact are really planes of
contact. In spite of this, in the calculation of S
from permeability, the square root of k is taken, so
that the maximum error from assuming k=5'O
would be only 10%.
It is suggested that, in the future, more attention
be paid to these methods. The surface of powders
is a quantity required for many branches of work,
and, at the present, it can be determined only from
rate of solution, rate of absorption methods, and by
microscopic methods, all of which are open to serious
error or are tedious.
Mixtures of Sizes.-It is important to note that the
previous sections have dealt wholly with grains of
uniform sizes. When mixtures of sizes are studied,
as has been done by Coulson25 , it is found that
Kozeny's equation had certain important limitations.
The value of S for spheres of mixed sizes is given by
S=6(1-)'

WI

particles is the decrease in porosity. Normally, for

spheres of one size, =038, independent of size,
though for very small sizes, the great ratio of surface
to volume allows bridging to take place more easily,
so that tends to increase. When, however, two
sizes are mixed, and especially when the size-ratio
exceeds four, the mixture usually shows a lower
porosity than either of the constituents. The
porosities in Table VIII emphasise the essential
points. For the ratio 125 : 1, no change in porosity
is effected on mixing; for the 2: 1 ratio, a slight
minimum is reached; for the 5 : 1 ratio, a porosity
as low as =0286 is attained. Similar results have
been obtained by Furnas 33 and by Fraser12 In the
mixing of concrete, it has long been known from the
researches of Feret 41 , that, if a low porosity is wanted,
a ratio of at least 4: 1 must be maintained between
one grade and the next.
Furnas 33 and Fraser12 each discussed this question
in some detail, so that a fairly clear picture can be
formed. Assume a bed of large spheres to which
smaller spheres are being added. Changes in porosity,
, during the addition of the first few spheres depend
upon two opposing effects, (i) the small spheres fiJI
the voids between the large ones and so tend to
decrease , (ii) they tend to wedge apart the larger
spheres and so to increase . As long as the size.
ratio is less than four, these two effects practically
balance, but when it is greater than four, the small
particles can slip ,between the larger without disturbing them, so that (i) rapidly becomes the dominating effect. The limit to this is when the large
voids are almost filled, at which stage (ii) gradually
dominates and passes through a minimum value.
As more of the small particles are added, another

~. (WI)
.

dl

where
=fractional weight of particles of size, d ll
and this, substituted in equation (6b), should give
keorr .=5O. The values obtained by Coulson are given
TABLE

VIII.

(,oulson's25 Results for 1Ylixtures of Spherical Particles.

i~

in. and! in.

% Smaller
106
403
620
803
-

0418
0391
0395
0394
-

591
512
505
52

--

--

_. .

I
I

in. and

I
I

:& in.

Smaller
size.

25

lac. cit.
lac. cit.

533
53
5'8
518
5,)5
517

in Table VIII. With two exceptions, the values of

k eorr . are reasonably close to 50 for the size-ratios,
125 : 1 and 2 : 1. When, however, the ratio of sizes is
5: 1, k"orr. varies widely between the extremes 33 and
55. A better understanding of the reason for the
breakdown of Kozeny's equation for such mixtures is
obtained by an inquiry into the packing of mixed
sizes of spheres.
The most noticeable effect from mixing two sizes of
<0

k eorr.

0397
0386
0383
0380
0383
0390
-

.,s. in.

Ratio 2 : 1.

1l1
199
335
500
667
809

---

k eorr,

size.

i\r

Ratio 125 : 1.

and

Smaller
size.

10 in.
f

1l7
190
29'1
346
43,)
533
642
R21

0350
0313
0313
0286
0293
0320
0334
0374

Ratio 5 : 1.
k eorr.

329
40
36
5,)
503
536
548
533

stage is reached in which isolated large particles are

distributed through the bed. This may be regarded
as a bed of small particles, in which the large particles
(i) occupy a space previously taken by a group of
small spheres together with the voids between them,
so that the net porosity is decreased, and (ii) disturb
lac. cit.
lac. cit.
41 Feret, Annales des Pants et Chaussees, 1892, '(; Revue des
Materiaux de Constructions et de Travaux Publics, 1922,
March, April and May.
12

33

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937

JUBILEE SUPPLEMENT-Trans IChemE, Vol 75, December 1997

S39

CARMAN.-FLUID FLOW THROUGH GRANULAR BEDS.

the packing of the small particles in their vicinity

and make it more open. The relative importance of
the former " volume" effect to the latter "surface"
effect increases as the size-ratio increases, so that,
when the size-ratio exceeds 4: 1, the addition of large
particles to a bed of small particles means a considerable decrease in E.
The derivation of Kozeny's equation rests on the
conception of a mean hydraulic depth for the whole
bed, which is, in effect, the average mean hydraulic
depth of all the pores of the bed. For it to hold true
the pores must be reasonably even in size. This is
true in beds of spheres of uniform size, and the only
case in which it would not be likely to hold for mixed
sizes occurs when the size ratio exceeds 4: 1, and
even then, only when large spheres predominate, and
the large voids are incompletely filled by the smaller
spheres. On first addition of small spheres to a bed
of large ones, there are two widely different sizes of
void, namely, those between the larger spheres and
those between groups of smaller spheres nested in
the large voids. The large voids initially form an
interconnecting system, but as more small spheres
are added, they gradually become filled, and finally,
only the void-size characteristic of the smaller spheres
remains. This is in agreement with the general trend
of Coulson's values, since it is only for the lower
percentages of the smaller spheres that k differs very
markedly from 50.
That k should have low values when the pore-space
is divided between two different sizes of void is in
accordance with expectation, since it can be shown'
that, for a group of parallel circular channels of given
volume and given surface, the flow is greater when
they are divided into two sizes than when they are
all of the same size, (see Appendix II).

salt to appear at the outlet.

Assuming that

E'

=~,
Ue

where U is the apparent velocity, he found that, at

very low rates of flow, E' increased steadily from 014
and finally reached a steady value of about 047
at ~~=0'006, the porosity, 0,47, being the true
porosity of the sand. He further found that, when
the bed was drained and air was passed through, the
fractional volume of water retained by the wet sand
was 0,33, that is, 047 minus 014.
The hypotheses advanced to explain the phenomenon
are (i) that a stationary film of liquid is retained on
the surface of the particles, which decreases in
thickness as the rate of flow rises, and (ii) Darapsky'sll
suggestion that a small, stationary ring of liquid is
retained at each point of contact of the particles, the
size of the ring being controlled by the velocity of
flow. The explanation most probably depends on the
surface forces between the liquid and the particles
of solid.
Bozza and Secchi 44 showed that surface forces do
enter into the problem; they found that a bed of
very fine quartz-sand gave permeabilities for water
and aqueous solutions about 13 times greater than
for certain organic liquids. The surface tensions
of the two groups were, respectively about
73-80 dynes./cm. and 24-30 dynes./cm. Furthermore, when a bed of finely ground galena was used, the
ratio of permeabilities for the two groups changed to
about 18. The range of values of ~~ covered by this
work was mainly 1 X 10-3 to 1 X 10- 6.

Sometimes an increase in permeability with rise

of pressure can be explained on purely mechanical
grounds. For instance, Hatschek29 noticed that this
Deviations from D' Arcy' s Law.-Kozeny's equation increase was characteristic of filter cloths, and
is a derivative of D'Arcy's law, and is, therefore, Underwood explained this by assuming that increase
subject to the same limitations. The most important of the pressure difference across a cloth, supported
limitation is that, when ~~ exceeds about 20, the by a series of ridges, stretches the fibres of the cloth,
and thereby enlarges the pores.
One further exception to D'Arcy's law, important
pressure loss across the bed rises more quickly than
the rate of flow. This is discussed in the next section. in filtration, should be mentioned. This occurs when
the particles forming the bed are easily deformed.
An important effect occurs at low values of ~~, Various workers 45 have dealt with this case, and have
when the rate of flow increases faster than the drop shown that the permeability decreases steadily as
in pressure. King 42 first pointed this out, and the pressure drop across the cake is increased. The
SiegeP has summarised the more recent knowledge on flow is certainly not turbulent, however, since, for
the subject. It has, however, been subjected to a constant pressure difference, the permeability of
little study and is not yet properly understood. the bed is not only inversely proportional to viscosity,
King 42 postulated that an increase in the rate of flow but also to thickness of the bed46, both of which are
increases the effective porosity of the bed, the characteristic of streamline flow. What happens is
effective porosity, E', being less than the true porosity, that an increase in the pressure difference further
E.
Some confirmation of this was made by Sven deforms the particles and thus, by decreasing the
Erikson,43 who measured the actual velocity, U e , in porosity, reduces the permeability.
a bed of sand by injecting a salt solution into water
11 loco cit.
flowing through the bed and taking the time for the
loco cit.
King, Nineteenth Ann. Rep., U.S. Geol. Surv., 1897-8,
2,59.
43 Sven Erikson, J. GaBbeleucht., 1920, 63, 615.
3

42

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937

2loc. cit.
.. Bozza and Secchi, G. Chim. Ind., 1929, 11, 443 and 487.
4. Almy and Lewis, J. Ind. Eng. Chem., 1912, 4, 528;
A. J. V. Underwood, J.S.C.I., 1928, 47, 325T.
46 P. C. Carman, J.S.C.I., 1933, 52, 280T; 1934, 53, 159T
and 301T.

S40

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TRANSACTIONS.-INSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS.

in which a, band n (1,6 < n < 2'0), are constants

characteristic of the bed, and the first and the second
terms denote streamline flow and turbulent flow,
respectively. Chalmers, Taliaferro and Rawlins 37
found this type of equation accurately to fit their
experimental data over wide ranges of u; it will be

General Correlation for .flow through Granular Beds.The decrease of the permeability as ~~ exceeds 20
appears, at first sight, to be analogous to the onset of
turbulence in a straight pipe. The change from
streamline flow, however, takes place very gradually.

I00I-

~-_+------+------_I_'---------+_-----_____1-------

IOI-------+-----~-+-------+------+_-----__ir__------

t~liS~
,

,.D/-------+-------+----~""-+----=:.-.,.,;:-_-_:-"....
-ID--il-------j-------

~.~
II

'~

DII--------+------+------+----~-+___-----+__-----

B
OOI~----+--------__+_----_+----_+---~-t+_------=~

DDD~'n,-----n-'r-----_,';;_----~;;_----_._hc_____---___.h----001
01
10
10
100
1000
pu!".s

FIG. 1.

Correlationjor Beds oj Spherical Particles (jor key, see Table IX).

(AI and (B) Theoretical, based on relationship for straight pipes.

Forchheimer 47 has suggested that this is due to

variations of pore-size within the bed, turbulence
occurring first on the larger pores, and he suggests,
therefore, the following type of equation,
LV> =au +bun . ............ (23)
., P. Forchheimer, "Hydraulik," 3 Auti., p. 60, 1930,
Leipzig and Berlin.

shown later that a similar type of equation is best

suited to fit the curve in Fig. 1. Instead of adopting
Forchheimer's hypothesis, however, these workers
noted that the decrease in permeability corresponded
less to the onset of turbulence than to the increase
in resistance exhibited by curved capillaries as
compared with Btra~ht capillaries.
37

IDe. cit.

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15,1937

S41

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CARMAN.-FLUID FLOW THROUGH GRANULAR BEDS.

It is not proposed to deal with the various empirical

equations proposed for" turbulent" flow, since none
have any wide generality, and the method of correlation by plotting dimensionless variables introduced by
Blake 4 has proved sufficiently successful over a wide
range of data. It has already been shown that the
TABLE

fluids include air, water and Schriever's nujol26,

viscosity=0'05 poise. The air used by Muskat and
Botset27 underwent a high degree of expansion in
its passage through the bed, and a still greater
expansion was attained in the experiments with
natural gas. The whole range of the curve in Fig. I
IX.

Data Used in Plotting Fig. 1.

Curve or
point on
Fig. 1.

Workers.

Porosity

Nature of bed.

Schriever26

00252-0,1025 em. glass

spheres.
0025-0094 em. glass
Green and Ampt28
spheres.
Muskat and
00632 em. glass spheres
Botset. 27
Coulson2
0159-0794 em. steel
spheres.
Burke and
0'148-0,634 em. lead
Plummer 3
shot.
0127-0305 em. lead
Chalmers",
Taliaferro and
shot.
Rawlins

1
2
3
4
5
6

7
8
9
10

"

" 48
Arnould
Uchida and
Fujita 39

" Ray
Furnas",
and Kreisinger 49
A MachO!

o BerJO

0,361-0,391
0317
0,392-0,417
0,303-0,421

0347
0346
090
0844

0184-0,441 lead shot

0,138-0,905 em. lead
shot
1,0-5,0 em. porcelain
saddles

0384
0,38-0,414

rp

!::l.Pg3

2S

pu

Air (at high degree of

expansion).
Light oils, average viscosity about 09 poises.
Humid air.
Natural gas, viscosity
about 0005 centipoises.
(At very high degrees
of expansion)

0353

"
"
Air
"
"
"

0,694-0,785

dimensionless groups suggested by Blake, in the

streamline region, give rise to the Kozeny equation.
.

Hot., gas-free oil

(1)=5'0 centipoises)
Air; water.

0353-0396

0305 em. lead shot

0406 em. lead shot
25 em. wire spirals
050-10 Lessing rings

In FIg. I, these groups,

Nature of fluids.

f.

pu

and -S'
7J

have been plotted on logarithmic scales, the range

of data exhibited on this plot being given in Table IX.
For spherical particles, the scale of sizes is from
d=0'025 em. to d=0905 em., and porosities range
from 10=030 to 10=0,42. The fluids vary from
Coulson's Oil 25 , with a viscosity of about one poise to
the natural gas used by Chalmers, Taliaferro and
Rawlins 37 , the viscosity of which, according to
Rawlins 52, was about 0005 centipoise; intermediate
4 lac. cit.
'loc. cit.
27 lac. cit.
28 lac. cit.
33 lac. cit.
3. lac. cit.
36 lac. cit.
.7 lac. cit.
'910c. cit.
48 Arnauld, Chim. et Ind., 1929, 21, 478.
49 Ray and Kreisinger, Bull. U.S. Bur. Min., 1911, No. 21.
0 Berl, catalogue of Messrs. Ditt & Fries, ,"Viesbaden.
01 Mach, Dechema Monographien, 1934, 6, 38.
5. Rawlins, Trans. Amer. Inst. Min. Metall. Eng., Pet. Div.,
1932, 98, 436.

"

Range of

e.

'IS

Approximately 0'15-0'7
Range not given. Probably
between 0,1-1,0.
14-20
0,01-1,0
02-250,0
100-4,000

500-9,000
600-13,000
100-350
0'5-250
06-250
Range not given
40-1,100

has been extended back by Coulson25 (curve 4) to

~~=0'01 in the streamline region, and forward to

~~=1O,000 by Chalmers, Taliaferro and Rawlins in

the turbulent region (curves 6, 7 and 8). The only
serious deviations are the results with t,he largest
sizes of lead shot used by Chalmers, Taliaferro and
Rawlins 37 (curve 8), and with the smallest sizes
used by Furnas 33 ; the results with the small size do
not agree with the data of Burke and Plummer35
(curve 5) with the same size of shot, and under the
same conditions. The deviation with the large lead
shot is more serious, and further experiments are
required to decide whether the Blake plot breaks
down for large values of ;;.
Of even greater interest is the extension of the
correlation to Arnould's wire spirals 44 (curve 9),
10=090, and to Berl saddles, 10=069--078, which
are not only non-spherical (4)=02 and 4>=0'3,
.5 lac.
26]OC.
2710c.
33]OC.
3. lac.
37 lac.
44]OC.

cit.
cit.
cit.
cit.
cit.
cit.
cit.
L

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937

S42

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TRANSACTIONS.-INSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS.

respectively), but present different orders of size and

of porosity. On the other hand, while the plot
effects correlation for different sizes of Lessing rings,
the curve for these rings lies well above the main
curve, though it appears to merge with the latter
inside the region of streamline flow.
The equation best fitting the data in Fig. 1 is one
of the Forchheimer 47 type in the form,
pu
(7)8) + 04 (7)8)

0/=5 pu

0.1

(24)

If, as seems probable, the only effect of the wall

is to increase the average porosity of the bed, it is
only necessary to take care that the porosity is
measured in every run and that the correct value is
substituted in the dimensionless groups of Fig. 1.
One factor, however, for which correction might be
made is the friction of the walls of the container. It
has already been pointed out that in the correlation
of Coulson's25 results allowance for wall-friction had
to be made by introducing the lacto,

8.

s +1

in which the second term is negligible in the streamline

region and the first in the turbulent region. The

This is equivalent to writing

only region in which it fails is between -~~=0'7 to

Lpu1l 8
81
Lpu1l 8 1
It may be concluded, therefore, that no elaborate
correction for wall effect is necessary, provided that
represents the average porosity of the whole bed,
including the region at the wall, and that SI is used in
the calculation of 0/.
The following example illustrates these points.
Chilton and Colbum34 published data for 16 and 0.9 6

~~=7'0, where it gives results about 10% too high.

All the data in Fig. 1, with the exception of those
of Green and Ampt28, have been corrected for "end
effect" in the original papers. Another type of
correction is for the "wall effect." The simple type
of correction used for this is indicated in the following
section. Owing to a considerable difference of
opinion as to the nature of the wall effect, it is
discussed at some length.
Correction for Wall Effect.-Photographs of crosssections of granular beds packed inside a tube have
been given by Fumas33 and by Graton and Fraserl2
These show that the porosity of the bed is greater
in the layers next to the wall, so that, in this region, it
would appear that the permeability should be higher
and that correction for this should be made in
calculating the permeability of the whole bed.
Fumas33 approached the problem by imagining a
container being pressed into an infinite bed of
particles, with simultaneous removal of particles
intercepted by the downward movement of the walls
of the container. The lengthy mathematical argument which develops from this conception, however,
is too uncertain, and, as Graton and Fraser12 have
pointed out, particles are, in practice, fed into a
container, so that the effect of the container wall is
to give a different type of packing from the normal
random packing. This may extend through several
layers of the mass, and the effect of the wall depends
largely upon its curvature and the sharpness of its
angles. While the proportion of voids at the wall
is greater than in the centre of the mass, these voids
are generally no wider, so that the mean hydraulic
radius in this region is not necessarily greater.
Experiments upon the effect have not given
concordant results. Furnas found that a small
container increased the permeability of the bed,
but Uchida and Fujita39 found, in one case, that it
was decreased, and, in two other cases, that the wall
had no effect.
1210c. cit.
2810c. cit.
3310c cit.
3910c. cit.
n IDe. cit.

/),P g . ,,3 (~) = f:,.p. g ,,3

If.

spheres in a 36 container, in the region ~~ =1,000._

According to Fig. 1, the value of 0/ should be about

020 in this region. Values of " were not given, but,
as shown in Fig. 2, drawn from experiments made by
7Or--------r------,-------,-----,

-60~_/_:..--~------_+_---__"__f----f

,,
I
I
I
I

I
I

"0

zo

\0

3'0

100

15-0

(DId)

FlO. 2.
Relation between Por08ity of Bed and Size of Container.
x Experimental.

Calculated.

the writer in which lead shot was shaken down to

the closest possible packing in glass tubes, the values
of " are about 0485 and 0,47, respectively, though
the normal porosity for spheres packed in a wide
tube is ,,=0,38. The geometrical reasoning for
calculations of voids is shown in Appendix III.
6(1-,,)

Since 8 =-d-'8 =1215 cm.2 /cm. a and 139 cm.2/cm3

/:,.p.g. ,,3

for the two sizes, respectively, the group, L

pUliS

'

'"loc. cit.

st IDe. cit.

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, VoI.1S, 1937

mBILEE SUPPLEMENT-Trans IChernE, Vol 75, December 1997

S43

CARMAN.-FLUID FLOW THROUGH GRANULAR BEDS.

10

50

20

........

........
1'0

....
..................

~t::::::-rr-;

8~

16

0'5

--

-~~

f-I

-..::=..4

18-

-- ---~

~
~

9
~

13

12

II

01
.10

20

50

100

pulqS

Curve.

Workers.

Tower packing.

1
2

Blake'

4
5
6
7
8

" 4
Arnould

0233 in. glass rings.

0269 in.
0394 in.
0484 in.
"
10 in. Raschig rings.
10 in. Aluminium rings.
30 cm. triangular rings.
10 mm. porcelain rings.
25mm.
35mm.
50mm.
15mm.
25mm.
"
i in. stoneware rings.
lin.
i in.
fin.
1.0 in.
11 in.

Beri liO

10

..

11

12
13
14

15
16
17
18

Macha!
Rose and Higby"

III

, loco
loco
n loco
ooloc.
iii loco

500

FIG. 3.
ReBultB Jar Rings.

Key to Fig. 3.

3<

200

cit.
cit.
cit.
cit.
cit.

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, VoL IS, 1937

1000

2000

JUBILEE SUPPLEMENT-Trans IChernE, Vol 75, December 1997

S44

TRANSACTIONS.-INSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS.

equals 027 in each case, which is too high, but if it is

multiplied by

(~1)

,it is reduced to 019 for I" spheres

and to 0195 for 0'9" spheres. This is an extreme case,

in which the container is so small that it opens up
the packing of the spheres and its walls contribute a
large proportion of the total friction. Normally,
when the ratio of the diameter of the container,
D, to that of the particle, d, is greater than 10 : 1, the
wall effect can be neglected, as it is less than experimental error.
Extension of the Blake Method to Non-Spherical
Particles.-It has been shown that in the streamline
region, permeability measurements give the same
value for the surface factor, .p, as do Heywood's38
microscopic measurements, and Fig. 1 shows that
even Lessing rings give concordant results in this
region. Uchida and Fujita's39 experiments on these
rings, however, provide the sole example in which a
non-spherical shape, for which .p is known, is traced
from the streamline region to the turbulent region.
They provide an interesting case in that, whereas
Berl saddles a,pd Arnould's spirals can be correlated
satisfactorily with spheres in the turbulent region,
Lessing rings show a steady deviation from the curve
for spheres between ~~=0'5 and ~~=20, and thereafter remain at about double the calculated values of
!{i. Probably the difference is that every element of
the saddles and spirals is presented equally to flow,
while the interior of a ring is a source of eddies and
of dead spaces at higher rates of flow. In this
respect, the flow in granular beds would be analogous
to flow in pipes and to the motion of particles through
fluids. Roughness of the pipe wall only gives rise
to increase of resistance in the turbulent region.
Wadell 53, too, has shown that, in the correlation of
particle motion through fluids by means of dimensionless groups, non-spherical particles present much
greater resistance to motion in the turbulent region
than do spheres, though, in the streamline region,
shape plays little part.
Blake found that his method of plotting did not
give correlation with small glass rings and I" Raschig
rings; the later data in Fig. 3 show lack of correlation
for rings. The later curves all lie between the limits
originally found by Blake4, while .the broken line,
representing the data of Uchida and Fujita39
(curve 10 from Fig. 1) is approximately midway
between these limits.
It seems probable that there are further unknown
factors with solid particles of more irregular shape.
:For instance, Meldau and Stach 54 have shown that
anthracite powders, which abound in acicular and
lenticular shapes, tend, on the one hand, to form very
small voids by juxtaposition of flat faces or of convex
with concave faces, and, on the other hand, groups
loco cit.
loco cit.
39 loco cit.
3 Wadell. J. Franklin Inst., 1934, 217, 450.
Mcldau awl Stach (Trans.), J. Inst. Fuel, 1034, 7, 336.
38

of particles lock together readily to form bridges

over large cavities. It has already been pointed out
in the section on mixed sizes, that the concept of
" mean hydraulic radius for a granular bed" upon
which the Blake plot rests cannot have a real meaning
unless the pores are of reasonably uniform size.
Experimental data on these points, however, are
lacking, since, though a large amount of published
work deals with beds of broken solids33.37,39. in
no case can the surface of the particle be calculated.
Even for rings and saddles, only Uchida and Fujita39
have covered a wide range of values of ~~.

For a

critical survey of the usefulness of the curves in Fig. 1,

data are urgently required for particles of known
surface area, including rings and particles with flat
and with rounded surfaces, and extending from well
in the streamline region, say p~ =0'1, into the turbulent
pu
Tj
region, say TjS=500.
General Discussion of the Blake Method.-The
equations for flow through a straight pipe of length
L e, and mean hydraulic radius, m, are

!;;
=k o' (_TJ_) (for streamline flow) ... (25)
pu.
puem

and

~=0'028 (_TJ_) 0.25(for turbulent flow) .. (26)

pu e

puem

substituting m=, and

Ue=~' ( ~e), these equations

become applicable to a granular bed. For a fluid

flowing across a unit cube of the bed, R is evaluated
as follows:
Energy supplied per unit time=Energy expended
in overcoming friction per unit time
that is,

li~' g . u

lipg
or, R= L'S

=R . S . u.

(L)
L

e
and equations (25) and (26) take the forms

(27)

lip g . 3 _ _
(Le) 2 (TJS)

Lpu2S -!{i-ko L
pu .(2S)
_.
(TJS)0'25
ifJ-O
028 (Le)2.75
L
pu

and

,
(29)

In an earlier section, the most likely values of ko and

e
of (\ L ) were taken as 25 and V j2,- respectively,

whence

0/=5 (:~)

(30)

and

TJS) 025
!{i=0'073 ( pu

(31)

These equations are plotted in Fig. 1, curves A and B.

It follows that the curve for granular beds bears a
close resemblance to curves for JIow in curved pipes,
such as those investigated by White 55 , both in (i) the
loco cit.
loco cit.
39 loco cit.
White, Proe .. Roy. !::Joe., 1!J2!J, A. 123, 645.
33

37

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937

JUBILEE SUPPLEMENT-Trans IChemE, Vol 75, December 1997

S45

CARMAN.-FLUID FLOW THROUGH GRANULAR BEDS.

gradual transition from the streamline to the turbulent

region, and (ii) the low Reynold's number at which
departure from the law of streamline motion in
straight pipes takes place. White expressed his
results in terms of the ratio of the resistance of the
curved pipe to the resistance of the same length of
straight pipe for the same Reynold's number. This

I~, where de is

ratio, C, he plotted against pum ..

7J

the

diameter of the pipe and de is the diameter of curvature, and thereby he was able to reduce all his results
to a single curve. Full confirmation has been given
more recently by Adler 56 The resulting curve is
reproduced in Fig. 4 as curve 1; in the same figure,

The values of

for these are in the region of 15.

In view of the fact that this curve is an average

drawn through widely scattered results (due to
variations in the geometrical proportions of different
sizes of elbows), it follows the trend of C for granular
beds very closely. A further important point is that
all three curves begin their upward trend at about the
same values of the abscissae.
Though White's experiments did not proceed far
into the turbulent region, they appeared to show that,
down to

2U

~=15, the
e

resistance for a curved pipe in

:---~
____a__

,/

10

2.
..
/

,,,' /

Wilson, McAdams and SeltzerS? for standard elbows.

20

---

~~

~ r.:----

50

V
~ -------

20

10

50

~
3a

zoo

100

soo

1000

2000

(1)

White's Curve

(2)
(3)

Elbows
Richter

(!)

Lorenz

(5)

Granular Bcds

Streamline region C = 1 +0'08

(~~) 0'9

Turbulent regiOn 6=5'5

015

(Pu)
7]S

. "

It is apparent that, though

(32)
(33)

is taken as unity, the

two curves are not in agreement. The lowest values

c

., ~.A!'!!:.
~
. ~ de
~

(first term in equation (24) negligible).

this region is only about 10% greater than that for

a straight pipe. Richter 58 carried out experiments
with smooth, curved, copper tubes over the range

7]

=400-18,000. Down to

~dc =
e

Below this value of

ie, the relationship

d
e

and C was more uncertain, but, as

possible that anomalous effects arise as

5,0, C increased rapidly until, at

approaches

unity. Confirmation for this is afforded by the dotted

curve (2) in Fig. 4, which is taken from that of
AllIer, Z. angcw. Muth. Mech., 1!J34, 14, 257.

fRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937

15 his results veri.

fied those of White in the turbulent region; they

may be represented fairly closely by the equation
pum) 0032
C =0,92 ( ~
(34)

of _ddr. tested by White, however, was -dd =15, and it is

5"

5000

FIG. 4.
Comparison oj C Jor Curved Pipes and Jor Granular Bed8.

the values of () for granular beds, as obtained from

equations (24), (30) and (31), are plotted as curve 5.

>l;L.

ABSCISSAE

L.---

between

i. decreased below

~ = 1,7,

the lowest

.7 Wilson, McAdams and Seltzer, J. Ind. Eng. Chem., 1922,

14.105.
os Richter, Forschv,ngsurbeiten, V.D.l., 1930, No. 338.

JUBILEE SUPPLEMENT-Trans IChemE, Vol 75, December 1997

S46

'l'RANSACTIONS.-INSTITUTlON OP' CHEMICAL ENGINEERS.

value employed in his work, the equation for C

became

G=9'0(~mr032

(35)

Lorenz 59 has provided a theoretical equation for

turbulent flow in curved pipes, which may be transformed to the form given in equation (36).
pum)025

0=1 +57 ( -:;-

(d)
. i

The relationship between 0 and

(36)
as given by this

equation is in general agreement with Richter's

results in that the term involving

is very small if
de
d
15
d
'
'dl
e
de
d excee s , an rlses rapl y a b ove um'ty as -d

decreases below 5.0.

In Fig. 4, equations (34),

and (36)-the last for

~=1'7-are plotted

(35)

as curves

3a, 3b and 4, as also are the average results of Wilson,

McAdams and Seltzer 57 for standard elbows. In
view of the uncertainties arising from scantiness of
experimental data, both for curved pipes and for
granular beds in the turbulent region, agreement is
reasonably good for the two cases.
It appears, therefore, that both in streamline and
in turbulent flow, the flow through granular beds is
equivalent to flow in a helically wound pipe, such
that the diameter of the helix is approximately
15 times the diameter of the pipe. This does not
provide an exact picture of the path taken by an
element of fluid traversing a granular bed. On the
basis of the excellent correlation in Fig. 1, however,
it does suggest that the tortuous nature of the paths
is not so chaotic as often imagined. The true picture
is that of an element of fluid winding its way along a
path through the bed, changing direction at random
from point to point, but only in such manner that
the curvature of the path and its mean hydraulic
radius, ~, bear a relationship to one another which is
practically constant at all points in the bed and for
all beds.

Design of Packed Towers.-Equation (24) may be

applied directly to the calculation of pressure drop
for packed towers where the packing consists of
solid spheres or saddles. For practical purposes,
since flow is usually well in the turbulent region,
the equations may be simplified to

("18)'1
t/s=Ll:1Ppu'(1.3
28 =0,4 1
pu

(24a)

With ring packings, it is not possible to design with

a high degree of accuracy, but safe values are given
by using 25 times the values in equation (24a), that is,
l:1P(I3
("1- 8 )'1
~~==1'0
Lpu2 8 1
pu
57 loe. cit.
S. H. Lorenz, Phys. Z., 1!J2!l, 30, 228.

SUMMARY.

In the foregoing paper, it has been shown that the

dimensionless groups originally used by Blake' for
flow. of fluid through granular beds provide an
excellent correlation for beds of spherical grains, and
that this extends over the very wide range of
experimental data available,

(~~=O'OI-lO,OOO).

In the streamline region, where D'Arcy's law holds,

Kozeny17 has provided a theoretical basis for Blake's
method of correlation, and the form of D'Arcy's
law which results has been termed Kozeny's equation.
Certain deviations from D'Arcy's law at very low
values of ~~ have been discussed briefly. It has also
been pointed out that Kozeny's equation does not
extend to mixtures of two sizes of spherical particles
when the size-ratio exceeds 4: 1, and the proportion
of smaller spheres in the mixture is less than 40%.
Satisfactory data for non-spherical particles are
scanty, but it appears that, in the streamline region,
Kozeny's equa.tion is valid within an error of 10%-20%
for all shapes of particle. In tJl.e turbulent region,
the Blake plot correlates spheres and curved shapes
such as saddle tower-packings, but is not satisfactory
for rings.
The theoretical implications of the Blake plot have
been discussed in detail, and it has been shown that
flow in granular beds bears a close analogy to that
in curved pipes with the same "mean hydraulic
radius."
An interesting development is that, for a powder,
Kozeny's conception of a "mean hydraulic radius"
for a granular bed is applicable to the correlation of
measurements of capillary rise and permeability.
As a corollary to this, since both correlations involve
the value of the specific surface of the powder,
measurements of capillary rise and of permeability,
respectively, offer two new and independent methods
for determining the specific surfaces of powders.
Acknowledgment.-The writer wishes to express
his thanks to Mr. M. B. Donald and to Dr. P. Sillitto
for helpful suggestions and criticism in the preparation
of this paper.
APPENDIX 1.
Experiment to determine value of

7.

In an attempt to determine the path followed by

an element of fluid in its way through a. granular
bed, the writer has introduced colour-bands in water
flowing vertically downwards through a bed. of
i" glass spheres in a 1" glass tube. Streamline flow
was maintained. By pareful adjustment, it ~as
found possible to observe the colour-band through
three or four layers of particles and sometimes even
further. The most' notable characteristic was that
the path made an almost constant angle of 45 with
the axis of the tube, that is, with the direction of
flow. Deviations were observed, even to the extremes
of 0 (vertical flow) and of 90 (horizontal flow), but
loc. cit.
loe. cit.

17

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937

JUBILEE SUPPLEMENT-Trans IChemE, Vol 75, December 1997

S47

CARMAN.-FLUID FLOW THROUGH GRANULAR BEDS.

these were remarkably few, and seemed to be evenly

distributed about the angle of 45, which could thus
be taken as the mean value. In one or two cases
the 45 track was almost a perfect helix for two or
three layers of the bed.
On the basis of these observations, the writer has
assumed that the track followed by an element of
fluid corresponds to an average inclination of 45,
and is therefore \1'2 times the depth of the bed, that is,

L.

voJ. of solid enclosed by cylinder

= vol. of 1 sphere
=~d3

ApPENDIX

P",~,ity, ~ 1~-it
"

II.

Effect of Non-uniformity of Pore-Size on Rate of Flow.

In the following, a proof is given for the statement
that flow is greater through parallel channels unequal
in size than through channels of even size, with the
same internal volume and internal surface, that is,
with the same average" mean hydraulic radius."
(a) Consider one large circular pipe, diameter, d,
and n smaller pipes, diameter, rd, with r<l.
Then, by Poiseuille's law, the total flow through the
pipes, at constant pressure drop, is given by
Q=K (d 4+nr 4d 4 )=Kd 4 (I+nr 4 )
where K is a constant.
(b) Consider a series of circular pipes, all of the
same diameter, d l , and with the same aggregate
values for the internal volume and internal surface
Then

Now,

,~['-~.(~r- V~-IJ
which gives

as a function of

(~)

or of

~.

-~I

FIG. 5

FIG. 6

being shown by Fig. 6, which corresponds to

D

lies between

10 and 20
where

This calculation only applies as long as B C doe,;,

not intersect the lower sphere, the limiting case

Q=Kmd 4=Kd4 . (1 +nr)3.

1
(I +nr)2
It follows that the ratio
QI
(1 +nr)3
Q= (1 +nr)2 (1 +nr 4)
Ql is greater than Q if
(l+nr)3> (l+nr)2 (I+nr 4 )
that is,
3r+3nr3 > 2+nr+r3+2nr 4
that is,
n(3r3-r-2r 4 ) > (2+r 3-3r).
But thi.'l is impossible, since n is positive and
O<r< I,so that the right-hand side of the inequality
is always positive and the left-hand side always
negative. It may be concluded, therefore, that Qlis
always less than Q.

To calculate porosities when

(1- :~l2~)'

=cP-(D-d)2

d2+nrd2 =d (1 +nr)
I
d+nrd
I+nr
and the number of tubes,
d+nrd (l+nr)2
m=--dl
I+nr
whence the total flow through the tubes, Qv is given by

III.

h2=OA2_(OD-AC)2

ApPENDIX

7T

Free space = - 4 - - fjd3

./_

L =y2.

6
D2 h

7T

D=dia. of tube.
d =dia. of sphere.

It is merely necessary, as shown in Fig. 5, to find

the volume of the cylinder BCD E, since
7TD2
voJ. of cylinder ="4' h

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937

~=1'866.

Above this, the porosity can be calculated,

but the calculation is too complex to be worth-while,

particularly as the porosity at

~ =20 is fairly

easily

calculated, and allows interpolation to be made for

the intermediate values.
Above

~=2'0, spheres can slip past one another in

the tube and the geometrical difficulties hecome

insurmountable.

JUBILEE SUPPLEMENT-Trans IChernE, Vol 75, December 1997

S48

TRANSACTIONS.-INSTITUTION OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERS.

D
At l=20.

LIST OF SYMBOLS.

The spheres will lie in pairs, the line

of centres for each pair lying perpendicular to the

(In consistent c.g.s. units).

~P=pressure difference

in gm./cm.'
in (gm./cm.')', where Po and P 1 are the
absolute pressures, on the two sides of the bed.
g=acoeleration due to gravity, = 981 cm./(sec. 2).
R=frictional force per unit area of particle surface, in
dynes/(cm. 2).
h=height of capillary rise, in cm.
L=depth or thickness of bed, in cm.

~(?)=(PO'-P1')

VIan View

~=

FIG. 7.

Le=actual length of path taken by fluid in traversing

depth, L, of the bed, in cm.
m=mean hydraulic radius, in em.
d=mean spherical diameter of a pRJtide, in em.
de=diameter of equivalent channel, in em. If channel
non-circular d e =4m.
dc=diameter of curvature for a curved channel, in cm.
D=diameter of container, in cm.
S=area of particle surface per unit volume of packed
space, in (cm.)2/(cm.)3, that is, (cm. '1).
Sl=total surface area/unit vol., inclusive of wall surface,
that is, Sl=

(S+~).

u=apparent velocity, in cm./sec., that is velocity calcu.

lated on empty container.
u.=actual velocity in the pore-channels, in cm./sec.
p=density of fluid, in gm./(cm. 3).
pm = density at ! (P o+P 1 l, when fluid is a perfect gas, in
gm./(cm.").
G=pll, that is appe,rent mass velocity in gm./sec./(cm.')
of cross-section of empty container.
7J = viscosity of fluid, in poises.
Elevation

~~

FIG. 8.

line of centres for adjacent pairs. Consider two

adjacent pairs. The centres will form the comers of
a regular tetrahedron, with length of each side=d.
For such a tetrahedron as in Figs. 7 and 8, the
distance, h, between opposite sides, is given by h= ~2
Now take the volume enclosed between the planes:
.
'TTD2
'TTD2d
Vol. of cyhnder=-h=--_
4
4V/2
Vol. occupied by spheres=four herni-spheres

='!!..d3

3
'TTD 2d 'TT 3
Free vol. = 4 V2"-3"d

l:~;-id3l'
4\/2' (!:.)2
-'TTD2d
-1-D
34V2"

(1-

=! = kinematic viscosity, in (cm. 2)/sec.

p
f"'" volume of pore .space per unit volume of the bed, that
is the porosity.
[{ = rate of flow of water at 10 0 C. through unit cube of
granular bed at unit difference of pressure, as given
by D'Arcy'slaw.
K 1 , a, b, n, etc., various constants applicable to special cases.
ko=constant in general law of streamline motion through
chann",18 of uniform, but noncircular, cross.section,
..
~P'g'm
k O'7J
m' ~P'g
that 13
- - - = - - or, u. = . -,
LeP''''''
pUem
k o7J L.
For circular sections, k o=20.
k=5'0=constant in general law of streamline motion
through granular beds (Kozeny's equation),
e3
~Pg _
f3
~P'g
tha.t is,
U = k7J/:j2 L"- 57JS2 -y;p

k 1 =0'5=constant in Burke and Plummer's general law

of streamline motion through granular beds,

u= f2(1-.) . ~P 'g
kl7JS2
L
=surface factor, such that, for any shape of particle,
S=6(1-f)fV;d. For spherical particles, <!>= 1.0, and,
for all other shapes, <!> is less than unity.
~P'g

~2) =0'528

'f3

1J;= Lpll'Sl
C = ~atio of resistance in curvilinear flow to resistance
in rectilinear flow for a given Reynold's number.

TRANS. INSTN CHEM. ENGRS, Vol. 15, 1937