EFFECTIVE PARAMETERS FOR FLOW IN SATURATED HETEROGENEOUS POROUS-MEDIA

Effective parameters for flow in saturated porous media are obtained v ia Taylor-Aris-Brenner moment analysis considering both periodic as we ll as stationary porous medium properties. It is assumed that a slug i s instantaneously introduced into an unbounded, anisotropic porous med ium having a compressible matrix, and that the correlation length of t he local hydraulic conductivity and specific storage fluctuations is s maller than the correlation length of hydraulic head fluctuations (gra dually varying flow). It is shown that the effective specific storage is equal to its volume average. The effective hydraulic conductivity i s derived by a small-perturbation analysis and it is shown to consist of its volume average and of a second term which accounts for the 'sma ll' local conductivity fluctuations.