Permeability of mono- and bi-dispersed porous media

Abstract

In this study, the permeability of mono- and bi-dispersed porous media is considered. The effects of the particle size distribution and the packing structure of particles on the permeability are investigated experimentally and analytically. Both experimental and analytic results suggest that the particlesize distribution is close to the log-normal distribution, and the permeability of the mono-dispersed porous media quasi-linearly decreases as the range of the particle size distribution increases. On the other hand, the effect of packing structure of particles on the permeability is shown to be negligible.The permeability of the bidispersed porous media quasi-linearly decreases as the range of cluster size increases, and nearly independent of the particle size distribution. The present model is valid over the range of parameters typically found in heat transfer applications.