TY - JOUR
T1 - Rigorous link between fluid permeability, electrical conductivity, and relaxation times for transport in porous media
AU - Avellaneda, M.
AU - Torquato, S.
PY - 1991
Y1 - 1991
N2 - A rigorous expression is derived that relates exactly the static fluid permeability k for flow through porous media to the electrical formation factor F (inverse of the dimensionless effective conductivity) and an effective length parameter L, i.e., k = L2/8F. This length parameter involves a certain average of the eigenvalues of the Stokes operator and reflects information about electrical and momentum transport. From the exact relation for k, a rigorous upper bound follows in terms of the principal viscous relation time Θ1 (proportional to the inverse of the smallest eigenvalue): k≤vΘ1/F, where v is the kinematic viscosity. It is also demonstrated that vΘ1≤DT1, where T 1 is the diffusion relaxation time for the analogous scalar diffusion problem and D is the diffusion coefficient. Therefore, one also has the alternative bound k≤DT1/F. The latter expression relates the fluid permeability on the one hand to purely diffusional parameters on the other. Finally, using the exact relation for the permeability, a derivation of the approximate relation k≃Λ2/8F postulated by Johnson et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 2564 (1986)] is given.
AB - A rigorous expression is derived that relates exactly the static fluid permeability k for flow through porous media to the electrical formation factor F (inverse of the dimensionless effective conductivity) and an effective length parameter L, i.e., k = L2/8F. This length parameter involves a certain average of the eigenvalues of the Stokes operator and reflects information about electrical and momentum transport. From the exact relation for k, a rigorous upper bound follows in terms of the principal viscous relation time Θ1 (proportional to the inverse of the smallest eigenvalue): k≤vΘ1/F, where v is the kinematic viscosity. It is also demonstrated that vΘ1≤DT1, where T 1 is the diffusion relaxation time for the analogous scalar diffusion problem and D is the diffusion coefficient. Therefore, one also has the alternative bound k≤DT1/F. The latter expression relates the fluid permeability on the one hand to purely diffusional parameters on the other. Finally, using the exact relation for the permeability, a derivation of the approximate relation k≃Λ2/8F postulated by Johnson et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 2564 (1986)] is given.
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U2 - 10.1063/1.858194
DO - 10.1063/1.858194
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0000070953
VL - 3
SP - 2529
EP - 2540
JO - Physics of fluids. A, Fluid dynamics
JF - Physics of fluids. A, Fluid dynamics
SN - 0899-8213
IS - 11
ER -