Experimental investigation of the permeability for unconsolidated porous media

A device was constructed to investigate the permeability of unconsolidated media at low flow rate and small pressure drop. The stability and reliability of the device have been verified through repeated experiments on a given porous medium. The experimental investigation on the porous media demonstrated that the permeability-porosity relation is unique for a given medium. Experiments with the narrow screened sands show that conventional hydrodynamics theory and dimension analysis can not be applied satisfactorily in the study of the capillary porous media. For screened sand whose particle size ranges from 0.10mm to 0.45mm and size rate is 1:1.25, the permeability can be estimated from formula k = 4.89 x 10{sup {minus}4} d{sup 1.465} {phi}{sup 4.69} where k and d are limited in m{sup 2} and m, respectively.