LIQUID-FILM FLOW IN A FRACTURE BETWEEN 2 POROUS BLOCKS

Liquid film flow in a fracture between two porous bodies is mainly driven by pressure. The pressure drop across such a small distance could be significant. The flow of a liquid film is governed by the pressure drop across the fracture space, and therefore, understanding of liquid film flow in a single liquid bridge along a solid wall between two porous bodies is needed. The shape of the liquid bridge between the porous blocks is an unknown. The first step is to determine the shape of the free surface. Due to the nature of the problem, a boundary integral technique is found to provide the solution to the whole problem. Solutions are reported for a range of capillary numbers observed in cracked porous media. Pressure drop is correlated using a dimensionless capillary number group. Using analogy from the Darcy flow in porous media, a correlation for the equivalent Darcy permeability is developed. © 1994 American Institute of Physics.