Measurement of principal permeability with the channel flow experiment

A framework for channel flow permeability measurement in resin transfer mol ding (RTM) is developed in this paper. For the channel flow experiment, fiv e possible experimental configurations are identified, of which two have no t yet been mentioned in the literature. Starting from effective permeabilit y, the entity measured in the experiment, explicit formulas for principal p ermeability and its orientation in two and three dimensions are developed. These formulas are applied to (published) experimental results that demonst rate their validity. The practical problems that prevent three-dimensional permeability measurement are discussed. Next, a framework for two-dimension al channel flow permeability measurement is proposed. All known channel flo w permeability measurement methods are classified according to this new fra mework, and where appropriate, differences are discussed. An important find ing emerging from this comparison is that two different definitions of Darc y's law are used today in permeability measurement.