Modification of fluid flow equation in saturated porous media

Abstract

Experimental investigations have shown that variation of porosity and hydraulic gradient are responsible for the deviations from Darcy's law, which is perfectly obeyed only when the fluid flow is laminar in porous media. Previous attempts to modify this equation considered only the effects of porosity of surface-active materials such as clay in causing deviations from Darcy's law. In this study, both the effect of porosity of any porous medium and hydraulic gradient from recent experimental data were considered. A general equation for both laminar and nonlaminar or turbulent fluid flow in porous media at any hydraulic gradient is proposed, including the boundary conditions.