Some problems related to the quantitative evaluation of physical properties of the porous medium from flow tests with non-Newtonian fluids (Q1072808)

This paper analyses two methods for determining the coefficients appearing in modified Darcy's law describing the flow through a porous medium in which fluids are non-Newtonian governed by the power law with a yield stress. The first method uses the measurement data in flow tests of steady state, while the second is based on the pressure response measurement during the transient flow of short duration, recorded at a fixed location. An analysis of non-Newtonian flow behaviour associated directly with quantitative interpretation of the data measured from these techniques is presented and discussed. It has been shown that both techniques have advantages and disadvantages and selection of one of them should experimentally be solved in terms of accuracy degree required in obtaining the coefficients in modified Darcy's law for non-Newtonian fluids.