Reconciliation of Conventional Wisdom with Reality

Conventional wisdom dictates that the relationship between pressure gradient and fluid flow rate in porous media has embedded within it one or more "constants" depending on the fluid flow regime under study. In this paper, we provide empirical data generated in several carefully controlled experiments which identify the singularity of 268 as the value for this constant. Furthermore, in this paper, the experimental protocol which we disclose is designed to identify the values for both the constant in the Kozeny/Carman model, which relates to the linear component of permeability, and the variable kinetic coefficient in the newly minted Q- modified Ergun model, which relates to the non-linear components of permeability, without involving any new theoretical development. Moreover, kinetic contributions to measured pressure gradient, which are not accounted for in some currently accepted empirical fluid flow equations, but which nevertheless contribute to measured pressure drop and thus hamper the identification of the value of the constant relative to the laminar component, are captured and lumped together into a single variable kinetic parameter-the kinetic coefficient.