ESTUDO E ANÁLISE EXPERIMENTAL DA DISPERSÃO DA PERMEABILIDADE DE MEIOS POROSOS NÃO CONSOLIDADOS

Abstract

Fluid flow in porous media is a phenomenon present both in nature and in the industry environment. This type of flow is considered complex due to the diversity of existing porous structures, therefore, the possibility of improving the understanding of phenomena through the statistical analysis of unconsolidated porous media proved to be of great importance. Using an experimental apparatus developed in the laboratory, permeability tests were carried out, using a new Permeameter which was used in the statistical analysis. The Permeameter consists of a closed circuit with a water reservoir and a pump that performs the elevation to a water column above an unconsolidated porous bed. The equipment is easy to operate and has high reproducibility of results. The flow was evaluated by a Darcy model in the same bed of packaged glass spheres countless times in order to evaluate the effect of the variation of the heterogeneities of the unconsolidated porous media. The variation in heterogeneities was measured using the permeability standard deviation, being obtained an average permeability value of 4.002E-09 m² and a standard deviation of 0.297E-09 m² for an unconsolidated porous media of 3 mm glass spheres diameter. This result reinforces the need to carry out studies of statistical dispersion in non-consolidated bed permeability apparatus, even for media formed from “almost perfect spheres”.