On the permeability of binary packings of spheres

Macroscopic flow properties of packed beds are strongly dependent on the structure of the pore space. In the case of permeability, the classical approach in which this coefficient is related to the mean voidage cannot be systematically applied as a predictive methodology, because the mean voidage index does not account for the morphology and topology of the porous media. In this work, a modelling technique is developed which enables the effective permeability of a binary packing of spheres to be evaluated from a detailed structural and phenomenological description of the system. The results are then compared with experimental data to confirm the predictive capability of the model.