Fluid Flow Through Randomly Packed Monodisperse Fibers: The Kozeny-Carman Parameter Analysis

Experimental studies have been carried out on fluid flow through porous media made up of randomly packed monodisperse fibers. The permeability and the Kozeny-Carman parameter kk are deduced from experimental results. The variations of the permeability increase exponentially with the porosity. The parameter kk is a decreasing function of the porosity ε and tends asymptotically to a value close to that deduced from a modified Ergun relation. The important decrease, observed for small aspect ratios, is certainly an effect of the cut sections of fibers. The results in terms of parameter kk are systematically compared to those deduced from various theoretical models. The variation laws of the parameter kk, deduced from different models, present important discrepancies with our experimental results.