Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) velocity measurement techniques are used t
o investigate flow of water and a glucose solution, of viscosity 3.89 x 10(
-3) Pa.s, within the interparticle space of a cylindrical packed bed of 5 m
m diameter glass ballotini. The experiments were performed over a range of
Reynolds numbers from 0.84 to 14.52, spanning the regime where inertial eff
ects begin to play a significant role relative to viscous forces. a transit
ion from creeping to inertial flow occurs in isolated pores at a local Reyn
olds number, defined for each pore within the interparticle space, of appro
ximately 30. Despite this transition in flow behavior in some pores, the gr
oss features of the flow pattern scale approximately with flow rate, which
can be explained by considering the volume of the void space in which the f
low is nearly stagnant as largely determining the pressure distribution wit
hin the bed.