Darcy's law

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Darcy's law is an equation that describes the flow of a fluid through a porous medium. The law
was formulated by Henry Darcy based on results of experiments[1] on the flow of water through
beds of sand, forming the basis of hydrogeology, a branch of earth sciences.

Contents

 1Background
 2Description

 3Derivation

 4Additional forms of Darcy's law

o 4.1Darcy's law in petroleum engineering

o 4.2Darcy–Forchheimer law

o 4.3Darcy's law for gases in fine media (Knudsen diffusion or Klinkenberg effect)

o 4.4Darcy's law for short time scales

o 4.5Brinkman form of Darcy's law

 5Validity of Darcy's law

 6See also

 7References

Background[edit]
Darcy's law was determined experimentally by Darcy. It has since been derived from the Navier–
Stokes equations via homogenization.[2] It is analogous to Fourier's law in the field of heat
conduction, Ohm's law in the field of electrical networks, or Fick's law in diffusion theory.
One application of Darcy's law is to analyze water flow through an aquifer; Darcy's law along with
the equation of conservation of mass are equivalent to the groundwater flow equation, one of the
basic relationships of hydrogeology.
Morris Muskat first[citation needed] refined Darcy's equation for single phase flow by including viscosity in
the single (fluid) phase equation of Darcy, and this change made it suitable for the petroleum
industry. Based on experimental results worked out by his colleagues Wyckoff and Botset,
Muskat and Meres also generalized Darcy's law to cover multiphase flow of water, oil and gas in
the porous medium of a petroleum reservoir. The generalized multiphase flow equations by
Muskat and others provide the analytical foundation for reservoir engineering that exists to this
day.

Description[edit]
Diagram showing definitions and directions for Darcy's law.

Darcy's law, as refined by Morris Muskat, in the absence of gravitational forces, is a simple
proportional relationship between the instantaneous flow rate through a porous medium of
permeability , the dynamic viscosity of the fluid and the pressure drop over a given distance

in a homogeneously permeable medium.[3]

This equation, for single phase (fluid) flow, is the defining equation [4] for absolute permeability
(single phase permeability). The total discharge, Q (units of volume per time, e.g., m3/s) is
equal to the product of the intrinsic permeability of the medium, k (m2), the cross-sectional
area to flow, A (units of area, e.g., m2), and the total pressure drop pb − pa(pascals), all
divided by the dynamic viscosity, μ (Pa·s) and the length over which the pressure drop is
taking place L (m).
The negative sign is needed because fluid flows from high pressure to low pressure. Note
that the elevation head must be taken into account if the inlet and outlet are at different
elevations. If the change in pressure is negative (where pa > pb), then the flow will be in the
positive x direction. There have been several proposals for a constitutive equation for
absolute permeability, and the most famous one is probably the Kozeny equation (also
called Kozeny–Carman equation).
Dividing both sides of the equation by the area and using more general notation leads to

where q is the flux (discharge per unit area, with units of length per time, m/s) and ∇p is
the pressure gradient vector (Pa/m). This value of flux, often referred to as the Darcy flux
or Darcy velocity, is not the velocity which the fluid traveling through the pores is
experiencing. The fluid velocity (v) is related to the Darcy flux (q) by the porosity (φ). The
flux is divided by porosity to account for the fact that only a fraction of the total formation
volume is available for flow. The fluid velocity would be the velocity a conservative tracer
would experience if carried by the fluid through the formation.

Darcy's law is a simple mathematical statement which neatly summarizes several

familiar properties that groundwater flowing in aquifers exhibits, including:

 if there is no pressure gradient over a distance, no flow occurs (these

are hydrostatic conditions),
 if there is a pressure gradient, flow will occur from high pressure towards low
pressure (opposite the direction of increasing gradient — hence the negative
sign in Darcy's law),
 the greater the pressure gradient (through the same formation material), the
greater the discharge rate, and
 the discharge rate of fluid will often be different — through different formation
materials (or even through the same material, in a different direction) — even if
the same pressure gradient exists in both cases.

A graphical illustration of the use of the steady-state groundwater flow

equation (based on Darcy's law and the conservation of mass) is in the construction
of flownets, to quantify the amount of groundwater flowing under a dam.
Darcy's law is only valid for slow, viscous flow; however, most groundwater flow
cases fall in this category. Typically any flow with a Reynolds number less than one is
clearly laminar, and it would be valid to apply Darcy's law. Experimental tests have
shown that flow regimes with Reynolds numbers up to 10 may still be Darcian, as in
the case of groundwater flow. The Reynolds number (a dimensionless parameter) for
porous media flow is typically expressed as

where ρ is the density of water (units of mass per volume), v is the specific
discharge (not the pore velocity — with units of length per time), d30 is a
representative grain diameter for the porous media (often taken as the 30%
passing size from a grain size analysis using sieves — with units of length),
and μ is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid.

Derivation[edit]
For stationary, creeping, incompressible flow, i.e. D(ρui)/Dt ≈ 0, the Navier–
Stokes equation simplifies to the Stokes equation:

where μ is the viscosity, ui is the velocity in the i direction, gi is the gravity

component in the i direction and p is the pressure. Assuming the viscous
resisting force is linear with the velocity we may write:

where φ is the porosity, and kij is the second order permeability tensor.
This gives the velocity in the n direction,

which gives Darcy's law for the volumetric flux density in

the n direction,
In isotropic porous media the off-diagonal elements in the
permeability tensor are zero, kij = 0 for i ≠ j and the diagonal
elements are identical, kii = k, and the common form is obtained

The above equation is a governing equation for single

phase fluid flow in a porous medium.

Additional forms of Darcy's law[edit]

Darcy's law in petroleum engineering[edit]
Another derivation of Darcy's law is used extensively
in petroleum engineering to determine the flow through
permeable media — the most simple of which is for a one-
dimensional, homogeneous rock formation with a single
fluid phase and constant fluid viscosity.

where Q is the flowrate of the formation (in units of

volume per unit time), k is the permeability of the
formation (typically in millidarcys), A is the cross-
sectional area of the formation, μ is the viscosity of the
fluid (typically in units of centipoise). ∂p/∂x represents
the pressure change per unit length of the formation.
This equation can also be solved for permeability and is
used to measure it, forcing a fluid of known viscosity
through a core of a known length and area, and
measuring the pressure drop across the length of the
core.
Almost all oil reservoirs have a water zone below the oil
leg, and some have also a gas cap above the oil leg.
When the reservoir pressure drops due to oil
production, water flows into the oil zone from below, and
gas flows into the oil zone from above (if the gas cap
exists), and we get a simultaneous flow and immiscible
mixing of all fluid phases in the oil zone. The operator of
the oil field may also inject water (and/or gas) in order to
improve oil production. The petroleum industry is
therefore using a generalized Darcy equation for
multiphase flow that was developed by Muskat et alios.
Because Darcy's name is so widespread and strongly
associated with flow in porous media, the multiphase
equation is denoted Darcy's law for multiphase flow or
generalized Darcy equation (or law) or simply Darcy's
equation (or law) or simply flow equation if the context
says that the text is discussing the multiphase equation
of Muskat et alios. Multiphase flow in oil and gas
reservoirs is a comprehensive topic, and one of many
articles about this topic is Darcy's law for multiphase
flow.
Darcy–Forchheimer law[edit]
For flows in porous media with Reynolds
numbers greater than about 1 to 10, inertial effects can
also become significant. Sometimes an inertial term is
added to the Darcy's equation, known
as Forchheimer term. This term is able to account for
the non-linear behavior of the pressure difference vs
flow data.[5]

where the additional term k1 is known as inertial

permeability.
The flow in the middle of a sandstone reservoir is so
slow that Forchheimer's equation is usually not
needed, but the gas flow into a gas production well
may be high enough to justify use of Forchheimer's
equation. In this case the inflow performance
calculations for the well, not the grid cell of the 3D
model, is based on the Forchheimer equation. The
effect of this is that an additional rate-dependent
skin appears in the inflow performance formula.
Some carbonate reservoirs have lots of fractures,
and Darcy's equation for multiphase flow is
generalized in order to govern both flow in fractures
and flow in the matrix (i.e. the traditional porous
rock). The irregular surface of the fracture walls and
high flow rate in the fractures, may justify use of
Forchheimer's equation.
Darcy's law for gases in fine media
(Knudsen diffusion or Klinkenberg
effect)[edit]
For gas flow in small characteristic dimensions
(e.g., very fine sand, nanoporous structures etc.),
the particle-wall interactions become more frequent,
giving rise to additional wall friction (Knudsen
friction). For a flow in this region, where
both viscous and Knudsen friction are present, a
new formulation needs to be
used. Knudsen presented a semi-empirical model
for flow in transition regime based on his
experiments on small capillaries.[6][7] For a porous
medium, the Knudsen equation can be given as [7]

where N is the molar flux, Rg is the gas

constant, T is the temperature, Deff
K is the effective Knudsen diffusivity of the
porous media. The model can also be derived
from the first-principle-based binary friction
model (BFM).[8][9] The differential equation of
transition flow in porous media based on BFM
is given as[8]

This equation is valid for capillaries as well

as porous media. The terminology of the
Knudsen effect and Knudsen diffusivity is
more common in mechanical and chemical
engineering. In geological and
petrochemical engineering, this effect is
known as the Klinkenberg effect. Using the
definition of molar flux, the above equation
can be rewritten as

This equation can be rearranged into

the following equation

Comparing this equation with

conventional Darcy's law, a new
formulation can be given as

where

This is equivalent to the

effective permeability
formulation proposed by
Klinkenberg:[10]

where b is known as
the Klinkenberg
parameter, which
depends on the gas
and the porous
medium structure. This
is quite evident if we
compare the above
formulations. The
Klinkenberg
parameter b is
dependent on
permeability, Knudsen
diffusivity and viscosity
(i.e., both gas and
porous medium
properties).
Darcy's law for
short time
scales[edit]
For very short time
scales, a time
derivative of flux may
be added to Darcy's
law, which results in
valid solutions at very
small times (in heat
transfer, this is called
the modified form
of Fourier's law),

where τ is a very
small time
constant which
causes this
equation to reduce
to the normal form
of Darcy's law at
"normal" times
(> nanoseconds).
The main reason
for doing this is
that the
regular groundwat
er flow
equation (diffusion
equation) leads
to singularities at
constant head
boundaries at very
small times. This
form is more
mathematically
rigorous, but leads
to
a hyperbolic groun
dwater flow
equation, which is
more difficult to
solve and is only
useful at very
small times,
typically out of the
realm of practical
use.
Brinkman
form of
Darcy's
law[edit]
Another extension
to the traditional
form of Darcy's
law is the
Brinkman term,
which is used to
account for
transitional flow
between
boundaries
(introduced by
Brinkman in
1949[11]),

where β is an
effective visco
sity term. This
correction
term accounts
for flow
through
medium where
the grains of
the media are
porous
themselves,
but is difficult
to use, and is
typically
neglected. For
example, if a
porous extrace
llular
matrix degrad
es to form
large pores
throughout the
matrix, the
viscous term
applies in the
large pores,
while Darcy's
law applies in
the remaining
intact region.
This scenario
was
considered in
a theoretical
and modelling
study.[12] In the
proposed
model, the
Brinkman
equation is
connected to a
set of reaction-
diffusion-
convection
equations.

Validity
of
Darcy's
law[edit]
Darcy's law is
valid
for laminar
flow through s
ediments. In
fine-grained
sediments, the
dimensions
of interstices a
re small and
thus flow is
laminar.
Coarse-
grained
sediments
also behave
similarly but in
very coarse-
grained
sediments the
flow may
be turbulent.[13]
Hence Darcy's
law is not
always valid in
such
sediments. For
flow through
commercial
circular pipes,
the flow is
laminar when
Reynolds
number is less
than 2000 and
turbulent when
it is more than
4000, but in
some
sediments it
has been
found that flow
is laminar
when the
value of
Reynolds
number is less
than 1.[14]