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On the Transport Properties of Anisotropic Networks of Capillaries
Author(s) -
Friedman Shmulik P.,
Seaton Nigel A.
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1029/95wr02830
Subject(s) - anisotropy , perpendicular , porous medium , lattice (music) , materials science , condensed matter physics , porosity , electrical resistivity and conductivity , geometry , physics , optics , composite material , mathematics , acoustics , quantum mechanics
Porous media such as sedimentary rocks and soils are often anisotropic in their resistance to flow of fluids, solutes, heat, and electrical current. Lattice‐based calculations of the transport properties of pore networks are of considerable interest, both because of their tractability and because methods exist for the characterization of porous solids in terms of lattice model parameters. We have investigated the dependence of the anisotropy factor for different diffusive and convective transport mechanisms, on the direction‐dependent connectivities and pore size distributions, using a uniaxial, anisotropic simple cubic lattice. While connectivity‐induced anisotropy, due to different coordination numbers in directions parallel and perpendicular to the bedding plane, significantly affects transport coefficients in both directions, anisotropy induced by pore size distribution mainly affects the perpendicular transport coefficients.