Bounds on fluid permeability for viscous flow through porous media

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Abstract
General properties of variational bounds on Darcy’s constant for slow viscous flow through porous media are studied. The bounds are also evaluated numerically for the penetrable sphere model. The bound of Doi depending on two-point correlations and the analytical bound of Weissberg and Prager give comparable results in the low density limit but the analytical bound is superior for higher densities. Prager’s bound depending on three-point correlation functions is worse than the analytical bound at low densities but better (although comparable to it) at high densities. A procedure for methodically improving Prager’s three point bound is presented. By introducing a Gaussian trial function, the three-point bound is improved by an order of magnitude for moderate values of porosity. The new bounds are comparable in magnitude to the Kozeny–Carman empirical relation for porous materials.