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Advances in Water Resources 31 (2008) 7481

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Developing a new form of permeability and KozenyCarman

constant for homogeneous porous media by means of fractal geometry
Peng Xu, Boming Yu *

Department of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, 1037 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430074, Hubei, PR China

Received 27 January 2007; received in revised form 24 April 2007; accepted 26 June 2007
Available online 3 July 2007

Abstract

The semi-empirical KozenyCarman (KC) equation is the most famous permeabilityporosity relation, which is widely used in the
eld of ow in porous media and is the starting point for many other permeability models. However, this relation has many limitations
from its inception, and the KC constant is an empirical parameter which was proved to be not a constant. In this paper, we briey
reviewed the KC equation, its modications and various models for the KC constant. We then derived an analytical expression for
the permeability in homogeneous porous media based on the fractal characters of porous media and capillary model. The proposed
model is expressed as a function of fractal dimensions, porosity and maximum pore size. The analytical KC constant with no empirical
constant is obtained from the assumption of square geometrical model. Furthermore, a distinct linear scaling law between the dimen-
sionless permeability and porosity is found. It is also shown that our analytical permeability is more closely related to the microstructures
(fractal dimensions, porosity and maximum pore size), compared to those obtained from conventional methods and models.
 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: KozenyCarman equation; KozenyCarman constant; Permeability; Fractal

1. Introduction ow path Lt to the straight length L0 or thickness of a sam-

The classical permeabilityporosity relation, Kozeny
Carman (KC) equation is applied in various elds such
as ground water ow, water/oil reservoirs, chemical engi-
neering, medicine, biochemical and electrochemical engi-
neering. This equation is also widely used as the starting
point for many other permeability models [1]. The KC
equation relates the permeability K to porosity / by [25]
/3
K 2
1 and c is taken to be about 2.5 [7] for beds packed with
c1  / S 2
where c and S denote Kozeny constant and specic surface
area based on the solid volume, respectively. If the tortu-
ousness of capillaries is taken into account and the undeter-
mined factor called tortuosity s is introduced (the
tortuosity s is dened as the ratio of the actual length of
*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 27 87542153.
E-mail address: yuboming2003@yahoo.com.cn (B. Yu).
ple along the macroscopic pressure gradient), the KC equa-
tion can be further modied as [6,7]
/3 /3
K 2 2
2
d2 2
k1  / S 36k1  /
where k = cs2 is the KC constant, s = Lt/L0 is the tortuos-
ity and d = 6/S is the mean diameter for the hypothetical
spherical solid particles with the same specic surface area
S. In the KC equation (Eq. (2)), if s is approximated by 21/2
spherical particles, then the empirical KC constant
(k = cs2) is approximated to be 5. The predictions by the
KC constant of k = 5 [3] are in accord with their experi-
mental results.
Although the KC equation is widely accepted and used
extensively, it has many limitations since its inception.
Moreover, this equation is a semi-empirical relation and
the KC constant is an empirical constant, which was
proved to be not a constant and may be related to porosity

0309-1708/$ - see front matter  2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.advwatres.2007.06.003
 P. Xu, B. Yu / Advances in Water Resources 31 (2008) 7481 75

[7]. The KC model has frequently been modied and has pendicular to the cylinders respectively and they also
dierent modied versions to improve the estimation of reported that the average KC constant k at equal void vol-
permeability. Table 1 summarizes some modications of ume for the case of packed spheres is related to the two
the KC equation. McGregor [8] extended the KC equation ow arrangements by k 23 kperpendicular flow 13 k
for a textile assembly in order to model the ow of dyes parallel flow. Sparrow and Loeer [24] gave the analyti-
through textile yarn packages. Bourbie et al. [9] suggested calnumerical solutions for longitudinal fully developed
an ad hoc repair using a variable power on porosity which laminar ow between cylinders arranged in triangular or
is also suitable for low porosity, and n (see Table 1) ranges square array. The results by Sparrow and Loeer matched
from the derived value of 3 for large porosities to values of well the experimental results by Sullivan [25] at low poros-
78 at very low porosities. Panda and Lake [10] expressed ities. The numerical calculations results [26,27] showed that
the single-phase permeability of unconsolidated media in the KC constant initially decreases with increase of poros-
terms of both the arbitrary particle size distribution ity and then after reaching a minimum, the constant
(PSD) and the bulk physical properties. Shih et al. [11] increases with porosity. The reviews presented above are
and Rodriguez et al. [12] modied the KC equation for collected in Fig. 1. Fig. 1 reveals that the KC constant,
glass and ber architecture, and their results show that which depends on porosity, microstructures of pores and
KC equation cannot t all the data well unless both param-
eters C and n are changed for dierent ber mats. In addi-
tion, the eective porosity [13] and percolation [14] were
taken into account for the modication of the KC equa-
tion; the fractal geometry [1518] and the Archie law
[17,18] were also used in derivation of permeability.
Numerous theoretical models, experiments and numeri-
cal calculations indicate that the KC equation does not
lead to a constant value for the KC constant, which
depends on porosity /, microstructures of pores and capil-
laries [7,19]. Carman [5] reported that the value of the KC
constant is equal to 4.8 0.3 for uniform spheres, and this
constant is usually taken to be equal to 5. Mathavan and
Viraraghavan [20] found the KC constant to be 3.4 for peat
beds. Rahli et al. [21] determined the KC constant for the
randomly packed mono-dispersed bers at dierent poros-
ities and aspect ratios. Davies and Dollimore [22] derived
the KC constant for the sedimentation of aggregates, which
is also correct for uidized beds as k = 1/[2/n3(1  /)].
Kyan et al. [23] indicated that the KC constant strongly
depends on porosity for brous beds and can increase
nearly exponentially with / for / > 0.95. Happel and Bren- Fig. 1. The relations between KC constant and porosity of porous media
ner [19] obtained the KC constant for ow parallel and per- for dierent models.

Table 1
KC equation and its modications for dierent porous media
Reference Permeability equation Media
2 3
d /
McGregor [8] K 16c 1/2
Textile assembly
Bourbie et al. [9] C/nd2   Porous media
3 2 cC 3d 3C 2d 12
Panda and Lake [10] K 72s2/1/
d
2
1C 2 2 Unconsolidated
d
Shih et al. [11]
/n1
Rodriguez et al. [12] K C1/n
Glass and ber
/3eff
Koponen et al. [13] K cC2 S 2
Square particles
Mavko and Nur [14] K(md) = Cd2(/  /c)3/(1 + /c  /)2 Sanstone carbonate
2n
/ 2
Bayles et al. [15] K C 1/ 2 ; here C c=8sg b Fine particle lter cakes
2
/r2 2/
Pape et al. [16] K 8C 2
3C2 1/
D1 Sandstone
q
K / n
Civan [17] / Ca/ Porous media
/n
Costa [18] K C 1/ Fiber mats vesicular rocks
C permeability factor, n empirical exponent, c skewness of PSD, Cd coecient of variation of PSD, /e eective porosity, /c percolation
threshold, r grain radius, D fractal dimension, C interconnectivity parameter.
76 P. Xu, B. Yu / Advances in Water Resources 31 (2008) 7481
capillaries, is not a constant. In Section 3.3, Fig. 1 will be
discussed in detail.
The literature related to the eld of the hydraulic con-
ductivity in porous media and examination of Kozeny
Carman equation is vast, and we here only take some of
representative one to show that a universal relationship
between the permeability and the geometrical characteris-
tics of porous media has not yet been developed. In this
work, we derive the analytical expressions for the perme-
ability and the KC constant based on the fractal geometry
theory.
2. Permeabilityporosity relationship with fractal geometry
theory
2.1. Fractal characteristics of porous media
In the past two decades, fractal geometry theory has
been used as a tool in many disciplines to characterize
irregular or disordered objects such as islands and coast
lines on earth [28,29], roughness of surfaces [30], sandstone
pores [31,32], rocks and fracture surfaces [3336], soils [37
39], fractal aggregates [40], granular materials [41] and por-
ous fabrics [42,43] etc. The disordered nature of pore
microstructures suggests the existence of fractal characters
formed by both pores and tortuousness of capillaries. Katz
and Thompson [31] may be the rst to present the experi-
mental evidence indicating that the pore spaces of a set
of sandstone samples are fractal and are self-similar over
three to four orders of magnitude in length extending from
to 100 lm. The fractal geometry theory has been pro-
10 A
ven to be powerful means for analysis of porous media
with complex and random microstructures [1518,2843],
and several fractal geometry models were presented for
the hydraulic conductivity of porous media [16
18,35,36,38,39,43,44].
Applying the fractal geometry theory, Yu et al. [4345]
proposed that the cumulative size distribution of pores in
porous media satises the following scaling law:
 D
kmax f
N e P k 3 that the ratio of the minimum pore size to the maximum
k
where N is the number of pores or capillaries, e is the length
scale and k is the pore size. The fractal dimension Df for
pore spaces is in the range of 1 < Df < 2 and 2 < Df < 3 in
two and three dimensions, respectively. The total number
of pores from the smallest diameter kmin to the largest
diameter kmax can be obtained from Eq. (3) as
 D
kmax f
N e P kmin 4 2.2. Describing the permeabilityporosity relation by fractal
kmin
Dierentiating Eq. (3) with respect to k results in the num-
ber of pores whose sizes are within the innitesimal range k
to k + dk,
dN Df kDmax
f
kDf 1 dk f k dk 5 media consist of a bundle of tortuous capillaries that follow
where f k Df kDmax f
kDf 1 is the probability density for
pore size distribution in fractal porous media and satises
D
the normalizing condition, which results in kmin =kmax f
0, indicating that kmin  kmax must be satised for fractal
analysis of a porous medium, otherwise the porous medium
is a non-fractal medium.
A porous medium having various pore sizes can be con-
sidered as a bundle of tortuous capillary tubes with vari-
able cross sectional areas, with diameter and tortuous
length being k and Lt(k), respectively. Due to the tortuous
nature of capillary, the tortuous length Lt(k) is greater than
or equal to the straight length L0. Wheatcraft and Tyler
[33] presented that a fractal path traveled by a particle
through a heterogeneous porous medium can be described
as Lt e e1DT LD0 T . According to this relation, Yu and
Cheng [44] argued that the diameter of capillaries is analo-
gous to the length scale e and developed the fractal scaling
relationship between the diameter and length of capillaries:
Lt k k1DT LD0 T 6
where 1 < DT < 2 is the fractal dimension for tortuosity in
two dimensions. DT = 1 represents a straight capillary, a
higher value of DT corresponds to a highly tortuous capil-
lary, and DT = 2 corresponds to a so highly tortuous line
that lls a plane. Pore sizes and tortuous capillary tubes
satisfy the fractal scaling laws Eqs. (3) and (6), respectively.
Yu and Li [45] derived an expression for porosity and
fractal dimension by exactly self-similar fractal geometries
(Sierpinski carpets and gaskets). The expression is
 d D
kmin E f
/ 7
kmax
where dE is the Euclidean dimension, and dE = 2 and 3 in
the two- and three-dimensional spaces, respectively.
In this work, we employ the capillary model that the
porous medium is comprised of a bundle of tortuous cap-
illaries whose sizes follow the fractal scaling law Eq. (3).
In general, the area porosity and the volume porosity
may not be equal. However, for simplicity, we assume that
the area porosity and the volume porosity are equal and
pore size is also equal in two and three dimensions. This
implies that the fractal dimension measured in three dimen-
sions is larger than that measured in two dimensions
exactly by 1 [18].
Eqs. (3)(7) form the basis for analysis of fractal perme-
ability model, which will be used to derive the KC
constant.
concept
Combining the HagenPoiseulle equation and Darcys
law, Yu and Cheng [44] obtained the analytical expression
for the eective permeability by assuming that porous
 P. Xu, B. Yu / Advances in Water Resources 31 (2008) 7481 77

the fractal scaling law. The fractal permeability K can be Comparing with other permeabilityporosity relations such
expressed as as KozenyCarman equation, our analytical permeability
(with no empirical constant) has more fundamental physi-
L1DT
Df
KG 0
k3DT 8a cal signicance. Eq. (12) with four microstructure parame-
A 3 DT  Df max ters (Df, DT, / and kmax) is a more generalized permeability
which indicates that the permeability is a function of the model compared to Eq. (8a) with totally ve parameters
pore area fractal dimension Df, tortuosity fractal dimen- (Df, DT, A, L0 and kmax). It should also be point out that
sion DT and structural parameters of a unit cell ( total cross the four microstructural parameters in Eq. (12) are not
sectional area A, representative length of L0 and the max- independent of each other, and it is believed that the
imum pore size kmax). G = p/128 is a geometry constant. expression of the permeability can be further generalized.
For straight capillaries (i.e., neglecting the tortuousness For example, the fractal dimension for pore space Df
of capillaries, then DT = 1), the permeability is reduced to may be related to porosity / and the largest pore diameter
kmax by Eq. (7). Additionally, further investigations may
K GDf k4max =A4  Df  8b need to be carried out for the relation between the two frac-
tal dimensions Df and DT.
In Eq. (8a), the parameters A and L0 need to be solved
based on the microstructures of a specic medium. In the
2.3. Analytical model for the KC constant
following, we present the general solution for the parame-
ters A and L0, and then extend Eq. (8a) to a more general
In this section, we can obtain the relationship between the
form.
maximum pore diameter kmax and the characteristic particle
The pores in a cross section can be considered as circles
diameter d by a simple geometrical model shown in Fig. 2,
with dierent diameters k, consequently, the total pore area
and the KC constant is determined accordingly by combing
in the cross section Ap can be obtained with the aid of Eqs.
Eqs. (2) and (12). Based on the idealized geometrical model,
(5) and (7) (in two dimensions, dE = 2)
the area of the square unit cell Au (see Fig. 2) is
Z kmax
p 2 pDf k2max pd 2
Ap k dN 1  / 9 Au 15
kmin 4 42  Df 41  /
Whereas the cross sectional area A is Then, the maximum pore area Amax, which can be approx-
Ap 1  / pDf k2max imated as a circle pk2max =4, can be calculated from Fig. 2
A 10
/ / 42  Df Amax pk2max =4 Au  pd 2 =4 pd 2 /=41  / 16
Inserting Eq.
p (10) into (8a) and considering the approxima- Therefore, the maximum pore diameter kmax can be ex-
tion L0 A, we obtain the extended permeability pressed as a function of particle diameter d and porosity
s
 1DT =2
pDf 1DT =2 42  Df 1DT =2 / /
K k2max kmax d 17
1283 DT  Df 1/ 1/
11 Combining Eqs. (2), (12) and (17) yield the KC constant:
which can be also expressed as 1 /3DT =2
 1DT =2 k 18
/ 36C f 1  /1DT =2
K Cf k2max 12
1/ where the coecient C f pDf
1DT =2
42Df 1DT =2
is only re-
1283DT Df
pDf 1DT =2 42Df 1DT =2
where the coecient C f is also re-
1283DT Df
lated to the fractal dimensions.
lated to porosity. Eq. (12) associates the permeability of
the homogeneous porous medium with its microstructure
and indicates that the permeability is explicitly related to
porosity, maximum pore size and the fractal dimensions
Df and DT. The dimensionless eective permeability can
be expressed as Au Amax
 1DT =2
K /
K 2 Cf 13
kmax 1/
d
If a straight capillary model (DT = 1) is assumed, the per-
meability (Eq. (12)) can be reduced to particles
2  Df /
K k2 14 Fig. 2. A simple arrangement of solid particles for the maximum pore in
324  Df 1  / max porous media.
78 P. Xu, B. Yu / Advances in Water Resources 31 (2008) 7481

Using the fractal geometry theory and tortuous capil- Comparing with the pore area fractal dimension Df, few
lary model, we have now obtained the analytical expres- attention has been paid to the tortuosity fractal dimension
sion for the KC constant Eq. (18) with no empirical DT. Most investigators tend to adopt tortuosity s, not the
constant. It is obvious that the KC constant given by tortuosity fractal dimension DT, to depict the tortuousness
Eq. (18) is actually not a constant, and it strongly depends of tortuous streamlines in porous media. However, as
on porosity as well as on the microstructures of porous Majumdar [30] stated that the fractal dimension of tortuos-
media. Eq. (18) reveals that the KC constant is related ity for tortuous streamtubes is more fundamental. From
to fractal dimensions Df, DT and porosity /. While the Eq. (6), the tortuosity s can be written as
fractal dimensions Df and DT are also related to the  DT 1
Lt k L0
microstructures of porous media and porosity. Therefore, s 20
our permeabilityporosity relation and the analytical L0 k
expression for the KC constant based on the fractal geom- which indicates that the smaller the diameter of a capillary,
etry theory are more closely related to the microstructures the longer the actual length of a capillary, and the higher
of porous media than those obtained by conventional the tortuosity. This is consistent with the physical situation.
methods. As stated by Majumdar [30], both porosity This equation also implies that the tortuosity fractal
and permeability are macroscopic parameters which do dimension DT keeps constant for a medium with given
not characterize the microstructure of a porous medium, porosity because the statistical self-similarity exists in the
and tortuosity is a more relevant microstructural parame- range of kmin  L0, where L0 can also be considered as
ter than permeability. Therefore, the KC constant by the the upper cutout or the upper limit of self-similarity. Con-
conventional methods does not characterize the micro- sequently, the average tortuosity can be obtained as
structure of a porous medium, and the present model  DT 1
Eq. (18) by using the fractal dimensions Df and DT will L0
s  21
be able to provide us with a fundamental understanding k
of ow and permeability in porous media.
where the average pore/capillary size k can be calculated
3. Results and discussion from
Z kmax "  D #
Df kmax kmin kmin f
3.1. Pore area fractal dimension Df and tortuosity fractal k k  f k dk  22
kmin Df  1 kmax kmax
dimension DT
Employing Yu and Lis criterion [45] gives
In the above section, we have shown that the pore area
fractal dimension Df and the tortuosity fractal dimension Df kmin
k 23
DT are more fundamental. Therefore, the determination Df  1
of the pore area fractal dimension Df and the tortuosity Therefore, the tortuosity fractal dimension DT for tortuous
fractal dimension DT are very important for the prediction streamtubes in porous media can be written as
of the permeability and KC constant in the homogeneous
ln s
porous media. In general, the fractal dimensions Df and DT 1 24
DT can be determined by the box-counting method ln Lk0
[29,44]. This method is based on the image analysis of a We adopt the results by Yu and Li [46] that the average tor-
unit cell or a suciently large cross section of a sample tuosity can be expressed as
along a plane normal to the ow direction. Yu and Cheng s
2 2 3
[44] present a detailed process of the box-counting method
6 p
1
1 147
for determining the pore area fractal dimension Df. They 16 1 p p 1/ 7
rstly polished the sample, took the image photos under s 6 1 1/ 1/ p 7
26
4 2 1 1/ 7
5
an optical microscope and numerically calculated the num-
ber of cumulative macro-pores with software Photoshop
and Visual C++. And then, from the logarithmic plots of With the aid of Eq. (10), the ratio of L0 =k can be expressed
the cumulative number of macro-pore versus pore sizes, as
the fractal dimensions Df can be determined. For theoreti-  1=2
cal analysis, we recommend, according to Eq. (7), the pore L0 Df  1 1  / p kmax
25
area fractal dimension Df can be determined by k 1=2
Df / 42  D f kmin
ln /
Df d E  kmin 19 According to Eq. (19), the pore area fractal dimension Df
ln kmax can be calculated if porosity / and kmin/kmax are deter-
where dE = 2 or dE = 3 in two or three dimensions, respec- mined. The values of s and L0 =k can then be calculated
tively. While kmin  kmax must be satised for fractal por- accordingly and the tortuosity fractal dimension DT can
ous media. be obtained by Eq. (24). Finally, the dimensionless perme-
 P. Xu, B. Yu / Advances in Water Resources 31 (2008) 7481 79

ability and KC constant can be found from Eqs. (13) and

(18), respectively.
In Fig. 3, we plot the values of the pore area fractal
dimension Df and the tortuosity fractal dimension DT ver-
sus the porosity for dierent ratios of kmin/kmax. It can be
seen clearly that the pore area fractal dimension Df
increases with the increase of porosity, while the tortuosity
fractal dimension DT decreases with the increase of poros-
ity. From Fig. 3 it can also be found that the pore area
fractal dimension Df will approach its possible maximum
value of 2, while tortuosity fractal dimension DT will
approach its possible minimum value of 1 as the porosity
reaches 1.0. These are all expected and consistent with
the practical physical situations.
Fig. 4. A comparison between the permeabilities from the present fractal
3.2. Permeability model and the experimental mono- and bi-dispersed medium data.

We rst compare our permeability values based on the

fractal tortuous capillary model with the experimental data
by Chen et al. [47] for a mono-dispersed porous sample (at
/ = 0.49) and three bi-dispersed porous samples (at /
= 0.52, 0.54 and 0.56), respectively. Wheatcraft and Tylers
[33] Monte Carlo simulation results indicate that the tortu-
osity fractal dimension in porous media is 1.081 and Yu
and Cheng [44]s results show that the average tortuosity
fractal dimension in the bi-dispersed sample is about 1.10
at porosity 0.52. Therefore, we choose the tortuosity fractal
dimension DT = 1.10 for simplication. According to the
method by Yu and Cheng [44], we plot the relations
between the permeability and porosity for mono- and bi-
dispersed porous media in Fig. 4. It is obvious that our
fractal results are in better agreement with the experimental
data than the classic KozenyCarman equation. Fig. 4 also
shows that the permeability of the mono-dispersed porous
media is higher than that of the bi-dispersed porous media
at the same eective porosity, which is expected and consis-
tent with the practical situations.
Fig. 3. The relationship between the fractal dimensions and porosity of
porous media (solid symbols represent the pore area fractal dimension Df,
and the hollow symbols denote the tortuosity fractal dimension DT).
Fig. 5. The dimensionless permeability K K=k2max versus porosity / at
dierent ratios of kmin/kmax in Eq. (13).
Fig. 5 shows the dimensionless permeability K=k2max ver-
sus porosity / at dierent ratios of kmin/kmax. The perme-
abilityporosity relation (Eq. (13)) derived by fractal
geometry theory with tortuousness capillary model has
no empirical constant. Eq. (13) reveals that the dimension-
less permeability K is related to porosity /, pore area frac-
tal dimension Df and tortuosity fractal dimension DT.
While the pore area fractal dimension Df and the tortuosity
fractal dimension DT are related to porosity / and micro-
structural parameters. Therefore, the variation of the
dimensionless permeability K=k2max with porosity / can be
obtained (Fig. 5). It can be seen clearly that the dimension-
less permeability K=k2max increases with porosity /, and that
the larger the ratio kmin/kmax, the larger the dimensionless
permeability K=k2max . For the dierent ratios of kmin/kmax,
the distinct linear scaling laws between the dimensionless
permeability K=k2max and porosity / are found. It means
that there is a linear relation between the dimensionless
permeability and the porosity, and the slops of the straight
lines are 3.29 103, 3.94 103 and 5.31 103 at the dif-
ferent ratios of kmin/kmax = 0.01, 0.02 and 0.05,
respectively.
80 P. Xu, B. Yu / Advances in Water Resources 31 (2008) 7481
3.3. KozenyCarman constant
Fig. 1 summarizes the various models for the KC con-
stant. It is clear that the KC constant is actual not a con-
stant, which strongly depends on porosity /,
microstructures of pores and capillaries. As shown in
Fig. 1, we can also see that there are distinct dierences
in these results; the variable trend of the KC constant with
the porosity may dier with each other. For instance, the
results by Davies and Dollimore [22], Kyan et al. [23]
and Sahraoui and Kaviany [27] indicate that the KC con-
stant rstly decrease with the porosity and then increase
at large porosity; while other results [19,24,25] show that
the KC constant increase with porosity monotonically.
Moreover, the values of the KC constant are dierent for
dierent kinds of porous media and the dierence is also
very large for dierent methods. The variation range of
the KC constant in Davies and Dollimore [22] is almost 2
orders of magnitude, and the experiment results by Sulli-
van [25] are much smaller than the classical value by Car-
man [5] and the values are near 0 at low porosity. It
should be pointed out that most of these results are based
on the porous media with very simple structure, which is
not the case for real porous media.
Our results based on Eq. (18) indicate that the KC con-
stant k is a function of porosity /, pore area fractal dimen-
sion Df and tortuosity fractal dimension DT. While the
fractal dimensions Df and DT are related to the microstruc-
tures of porous media. Our results show that the KC con-
stant k increases with porosity /, and the value of k is
relatively small (12) at low porosity, but it increases shar-
ply at high porosity /. This is similar to the statement by
Kyan et al. [23] that the KC constant increases nearly expo-
nentially with porosity at high porosity. However, it
appears that the KC constant is valid in the general range
of 0.2 < / < 0.7. Compared with the former results, our
results are consistent with those by Happel and Brenners
parallel ow model [19] in the range of 0.1 < / < 0.3. The
numerical results by Eidsath et al. [26] are also consistent
with our results. The results by Rahli et al. [21], Davies
and Dollimore [22], Kyan et al. [23], Sparrow and Loeer
[24] have the common domain. The gure also reveals that
the present KC constant k depends on the ratio of the min-
imum pore size to the maximum pore size. However, the
KC constant k from the conventional method cannot
reveal these underlying physical principles. Therefore, the
advantages of the proposed models over the traditional
models are evident.
4. Conclusions
In this paper, we have made a comprehensive review on
the KC equation and its various modications, as well as
summarized the various models for the KC constant. We
have then derived new analytical expressions for the perme-
ability and the KC constant based on the fractal geometry
theory. The proposed KC constant is expressed as a func-
tion of the microstructural parameters (porosity, fractal
dimensions) in porous media, there is no empirical constant
and every parameter in the proposed model has specic
physical signicance. The present KC constant based on
the fractal geometry theory is more closely related to the
microstructures in porous media than those obtained by
conventional methods. Furthermore, a distinct linear scal-
ing law between the dimensionless permeability and poros-
ity is also found.
This work only focuses on the fully developed laminar
Newtonian uid ow and isotropy unconsolidated porous
media whose pore distribution follows the fractal scaling
law. The analytical expression Eq. (12) for the permeability
with specic physical signicance reveals the physical prin-
ciples for permeability and is thus recommended. Future
work may be possible by extending this analysis to general
and other ow regime as well as non-Newtonian uid ow
in porous media.
Acknowledgement
This work was supported by the National Natural Sci-
ence Foundation of China through grant number
10572052.
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