A PGSE study of propane gas flow through model porous bead packs

Abstract We present a study of the probability density for molecular displacements of gas flowing through bead packs. The three bead packs to be described are composed of polydispersed porous PVC particles, 500 μm glass spheres, and 300 μm polystyrene spheres. A range of velocities ( 1 cm s −1 to 1 m s −1 ) and observation times (3–500 ms), hence transport distances, are presented. For comparison we also measure the propagators for water flow in the polystyrene sphere pack. The exchange time between the moving and the stagnant portions of the flow is a strong function of the diffusion coefficient of the fluid. Comparing the propagators between water and propane flowing in similar porous media makes this clear. The gas propagators, for flowing and diffusing molecules, consistently show a feature at the average pore diameter. This feature has previously been observed for similar Peclet number studies in smaller monodispersed bead packs using liquids, but is now demonstrated for larger beads with gas. We analyze and discuss these propagators in the physically intuitive propagator space and also in the well-understood Fourier q space. The extension of NMR PGSE experiments to gas systems allows flow and diffusion information to be obtained over a wider range of length and time scales than with liquids, and also for a new range of physical environments and systems. Interactions between stochastic and deterministic motion are fundamental to the theoretical description of transport in porous media, and the time and length scale dependences are central to an understanding of the resultant dispersive motion.