Steady-State Saturated Flow — Single Fluid

1 Steady-State Saturated Flow — Single Fluid 

The basic equation for water flow through saturated porous media was developed by Flenry Darcy in 1856 to calculate the flow of water through sand filters. This equation has been found to be valid for the flow of liquids through porous media when adjusted for the viscosity and density of the liquid. The original form of the equation, designed to calculate discharge is as follows  

Although permeability is expressed in units resembling a velocity term, the actual travel rate of the fluid through soil is expressed as 

For practical purposes, saturated flow of a single fluid such as gasoline, kerosene, or another particular petroleum product can be predicted by the use of these equations. Standard units of linear measurement (feet, meters, etc.) and discharge are accommodated for by the corrections for viscosity and density. Field-testing procedures can be conducted using standard water well testing procedures. 

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The MOTIF code is a three-dimensional finite-element code capable of simulating steady state or transient coupled/uncoupled variable-density, variable- saturation fluid flow, heat transport, and conservative or nonspecies radionuclide) transport in deformable fractured/ porous media. In the code, the porous medium component is represented by hexahedral elements, triangular prism elements, tetrahedral elements, quadrilateral planar elements, and lineal elements. Discrete fractures are represented by biplanar quadrilateral elements (for the equilibrium equation), and monoplanar quadrilateral elements (for flow and transport equations). 

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