Inlet and Outlet Pressure-Drop Effects on the Determination of Permeability and Form Coefficient of a Porous Medium

The determination of permeability K and form coefficient C, defined by the Hazen-Dupuit-Darcy (HDD) equation of flow through a porous medium, requires the measurement of the total pressure drop caused by the porous medium (i.e., inlet, core, and outlet) per unit of porous medium length. The inlet and outlet pressure-drop contributions, however, are not related to the porous medium length. Hence, for situations in which these pressure drops are not negligible, e.g., for short or very permeable porous media core, the definition of K and C via the HDD equation becomes ambiguous. This aspect is investigated analytically and numerically using the flow through a restriction in circular pipe and parallel plates channels. Results show that inlet and outlet pressure-drop effects become increasingly important when the inlet and outlet fluid surface-fraction φ decreases and the Reynolds number Re increases for both laminar and turbulent flow regimes. A conservative estimate of the minimum porous medium length beyond which the core pressure drop predominates over the inlet and outlet pressure drop is obtained by considering a least restrictive porous medium core. Finally, modified K and C are proposed and predictive equations, accurate to within 2.5%, are obtained for both channel configurations with Re ranging from 10⁻² to 10² and φ from 6% to 95%.