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Updated: Feb 20, 2026

Microfluidic Devices for Characterizing Pore-scale Event Processes in Porous Media for Oil Recovery Applications
Published on: January 16, 2018
Local Pore Size Correlations Determine Flow Distributions in Porous Media
Karen Alim1,2, Shima Parsa1, David A Weitz1,3
1John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences and Kavli Institute for Bionano Science and Technology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138, USA.
Abstract:
The relationship between the microstructure of a porous medium and the observed flow distribution is still a puzzle. We resolve it with an analytical model, where the local correlations between adjacent pores, which determine the distribution of flows propagated from one pore downstream, predict the flow distribution. Numerical simulations of a two-dimensional porous medium verify the model and clearly show the transition of flow distributions from δ-function-like via Gaussians to exponential with increasing disorder. Comparison to experimental data further verifies our numerical approach.
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