HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Figures Only Full Text Free Full Text (PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via ISI Web of Science (2) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Hunt, A. G. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Hunt, A. G. GeoRef GeoRef Citation Agricola Articles by Hunt, A. G. Related Collections Air Permeability Fractal Approaches

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Continuum Percolation Theory for Saturation Dependence of Air Permeability

Department of Physics, Wright State University, 3640 Colonel Glenn Highway, Dayton, OH 45435
^* Corresponding author (allen.hunt{at}wright.edu)

Received 18 June 2004.

Continuum percolation theory has recently been used to find the saturation, S, dependence of the hydraulic conductivity, K(S), of probabilistic fractal porous media. Analysis of K(S) in conjunction with solute diffusion revealed the presence of a critical volume fraction, _t, for percolation in natural porous media. For moisture contents within a few percent of _t, K(S) depends on the moisture content as a power of – _t. At higher moisture contents, K(S) is determined through critical path analysis, which uses continuum percolation theory to find the dependence of a bottleneck (flow-limiting) pore radius on S. The physics near _t is thus dominated by connectivity and tortuosity issues, but far from _t by the variations in the radius of a bottleneck pore. Here it is demonstrated that the bottleneck pore radius for air permeability, k_a, does not change as a function of saturation. Using the same scaling for the air permeability in the vicinity of the percolation of the air phase as proposed for the hydraulic conductivity in the vicinity of the percolation of the water phase yields results for k_a in accordance with experimental data.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. A. Blank, A. G. Hunt, and T. E. Skinner A Numerical Procedure to Calculate Hydraulic Conductivity for an Arbitrary Pore Size Distribution Vadose Zone J., May 27, 2008; 7(2): 461 - 472. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				R. P. Ewing and A. G. Hunt Dependence of the Electrical Conductivity on Saturation in Real Porous Media Vadose Zone J., May 26, 2006; 5(2): 731 - 741. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]