Geotechnical engineering

Materials science

Petroleum engineering

Geology

Porosity

Fluid dynamics

Physics

Flow (mathematics)

Environmental science

Porous medium

Mechanics

Journal of the Irrigation and Drainage Division

Following the Burdine approach, based on a model developed by Wyllie and Spangler, a theory is presented that develops the functional relationships among saturation, pressure difference, and permeabilities of air and liquid in terms of hydraulic properties of partially saturated porous media. The theory is based only on the capillary pressure-desaturation relationships for porous media. Procedures for determining these hydraulic properties from capillary pressure-desaturation curves are described. Permeabilities to the wetting and nonwetting phases as a function of capillary pressure and saturation are predicted from the experimentally determined hydraulic properties. The results for all media studied are in close agreement with the theory.

Properties of Porous Media Affecting Fluid Flow