HIGH-VELOCITY FLOW IN POROUS-MEDIA

Experimental observations have established that the proportionality between pressure head gradient and fluid velocity does not hold for high rates of fluid flow in porous media. Empirical relations such as Forchheimer equation have been proposed to account for nonlinear effects. The purpose of this work is to derive such nonlinear relationships based on fundamental laws of continuum mechanics and to identify the source of nonlinearity in equations. Adopting the continuum approach to the description of thermodynamic processes in porous media, a general equation of motion of fluid at the macroscopic level is proposed.