Transp Porous Med (2010) 82:375384

DOI 10.1007/s11242-009-9432-z

Effective Correlation of Apparent Gas Permeability

in Tight Porous Media

Faruk Civan

Received: 4 December 2008 / Accepted: 15 June 2009 / Published online: 3 July 2009
Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009

Abstract Gaseous flow regimes through tight porous media are described by rigorous
application of a unified HagenPoiseuille-type equation. Proper implementation is accom-
plished based on the realization of the preferential flow paths in porous media as a bundle of
tortuous capillary tubes. Improved formulations and methodology presented here are shown
to provide accurate and meaningful correlations of data considering the effect of the charac-
teristic parameters of porous media including intrinsic permeability, porosity, and tortuosity
on the apparent gas permeability, rarefaction coefficient, and Klinkenberg gas slippage factor.

Keywords Tight porous media Apparent gas permeability Rarefaction coefficient

Klinkenberg gas slippage factor Tortuosity

1 Introduction

Description of various gaseous flow regimes through tight porous media has drawn con-
siderable attention because the convetional Darcys law cannot realistically describe the
variety of the relevant flow regimes other than the viscous flow regime. For example,
Javadpour et al. (2007) have determined that gas flow in shales deviates from behavior
described by the conventional Ficks and Darcys laws. Therefore, many attempts have been
made in describing the transfer of gas through tight porous media under various regimes.
Such efforts are of utmost practical importance when dealing with extraction of hydro-
carbon gases from unconventional gas reservoirs, such as shale-gas and coal-bed methane
reservoirs.
Skjetne and Gudmundsson (1995), and Skjetne and Auriault (1999) theoretically
investigated the wall-slip gas flow phenomenon in porous media based on the Navier-Stokes
equation, but did not offer any correlation for the Klinkenberg effect. Wu et al. (1998)

F. Civan (B)
Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, The University of Oklahoma,
T 301 Sarkeys Energy Center, 100 East Boyd St., Norman, OK 73019, USA
e-mail: fcivan@ou.edu

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376 F. Civan

developed analytical procedures for determination of the Klinkenberg coefficient from

laboratory and well tests, but did not provide any correlation. Having reviewed the vari-
ous correlations available, Sampath and Keighin (1982) proposed an improved correlation
for the Klinkenberg coefficient of the N2 gas in the presence of water in porous media,
expressed here in the consistent SI units as


K 0.53
bk = 0.0414 (1)

where bk is in Pa, K is in m2 , and is in fraction. The significance of this correlation is

that its exponent is very close to the 0.50 exponent value obtained by theoretical analysis
in this article.
Beskok and Karniadakis (1999) developed a unified HagenPoiseuille-type equation cov-
ering the fundamental flow regimes in tight porous media, including continuum fluid flow,
slip flow, transition flow, and free molecular flow conditions. Ability to describe all four flow
regimes in one equation alone is an outstanding accomplishment. However, the empirical
correlation of the available data of the dimensionless rarefaction coefficient is a mathe-
matically complicated trigonometric function. As demonstrated in this article, much accu-
rate correlation of the same data can be accomplished using a simple inverse-power-law
function.
Florence et al. (2007) made an attempt at utilizing the HagenPoiseuille-type equation of
Beskok and Karniadakis (1999) to derive a general expression for the apparent gas perme-
ability of tight porous media and correlated some essential parameters by means of exper-
imental data, including the Klinkenberg gas slippage factor and the Knudsen number by
ignoring the effect of tortuosity, although it is an important factor especially in tight porous
media. Therefore, although their overall methodology is reasonable, their formulation and
data analysis procedure require some critical improvements as pointed out in this article
when attempting to apply the HagenPoiseuille-type equation, originally derived for pipe
flow to tight-porous media flow. Their treatment neglects a number of important issues. The
HagenPoiseuille-type equation of Beskok and Karniadakis (1999) has been derived for a
single-pipe flow. When the bundle of tortuous tubes realization of the preferential flow paths
in tight-porous media (Carman 1956) is considered, the number and tortuosity of the pref-
erential flow paths formed in porous media should be taken into account as the important
parameters.
Further, the approach taken by Florence et al. (2007) for correlation of the Klinkenberg
gas slippage factor is not correct and consequently their correlation cannot represent the data
over the full range of the gas molecular mass (commonly called weight). These errors are
corrected in this article by a rigorous approach which leads to a very accurate correlation of
their data with a coefficient of regression almost equal to 1.0. In addition, the present analysis
lends itself to a practical method by which tortuosity of tight porous media can be determined
using the flow data obtained by conventional gas flow tests. To the authors knowledge, such
a method does not presently exist in the literature.
Hence, the primary objectives of this article are threefold:
Correlation of the rarefaction coefficient
Derivation of the apparent gas permeability equation
Correlation of the Klinkenberg gas slippage factor
These issues are resolved and verified in the following sections by theoretical means and
rigorously analyzing experimental data.

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Effective Correlation of Apparent Gas Permeability in Tight Porous Media 377

2 Correlation of the Rarefaction Coefficient

Beskok and Karniadakis (1999) derived a unified HagenPoiseuille-type equation for volu-
metric gas flow qh through a single pipe, given below:

Rh4 p
qh = f (K n) , (2)
8 L h
where the flow condition function f (K n) is given by


4K n
f (K n) = (1 + K n) 1 + , (3)
1 bK n
where Kn is the Knudsen number given by

Kn = , (4)
Rh
where Rh and L h denote the hydraulic radius and length of flow tube, and denotes the
mean-free-path of molecules given by (Loeb 1934)

Rg T
= , (5)
p 2M
where p is the absolute gas pressure in Pa, T is the absolute temperature in K, M is the
molecular mass in kg/kmol, Rg = 8314 J/kmol/K is the universal gas constant, and is the
viscosity of gas in Pa.s.
Equation 2 describes the fundamental flow regimes, namely the conditions of continuum
fluid flow (K n 0.001), slip flow (0.001 < K n < 0.1), transition flow (0.1 < K n < 10),
and free molecular flow (K n 10), according to the classification of flow regimes by Schaaf
and Chambre (1961). However, Beskok and Karniadakis (1999) emphasize that the Knudsen
number limits given in this classification are based on pipe flow experiments and may vary
by the geometry of other cases.
The parameter appearing in Eq. 3 is a dimensionless rarefaction coefficient which varies
in the range of 0 < < o over 0 K n < . Beskok and Karniadakis (1999) provide an
empirical correlation as:
2  
= o tan1 1 K n 2 , (6)

where 1 = 4.0, 2 = 0.4, and o is an asymptotic upper limit value of as K n
(representing free molecular flow condition), calculated by:
64
o K n =  , (7)
3 1 b4

Here, b denotes a slip coefficient. They indicate that = 0 and b = 1 in the slip flow
condition, and therefore Eq. 7 becomes:
64
o = (8)
15
The expression of Eq. 6 is mathematically complicated. In the following exercise, it is
demonstrated that a simple inverse power-law expression as given below provides a much

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378 F. Civan

Fig. 1 Present approach using Eq. 9 accurately correlates the data of both Loyalka and Hamoodi (1990)
using the theoretically predicted upper limit value of o = 1.358 and Tison and Tilford (1993) using an
adjusted upper limit value of o = 1.205. The present approach yields accurate fit of data with coefficients of
regressions very close to 1.0

more accurate and practical alternative to Eq. 6 for the range of data analyzed by Beskok and
Karniadakis (1999):
o A
1= , A > 0, B > 0, (9)
K nB
where A and B are empirical fitting constants. Note that Eq. (9) honors the limiting conditions
of 0 < < o over 0 K n < . In fact, it can be shown that

K nB
= Limit = 0 and therefore = 0, A > 0, B > 0 (10)
o K n0 A
o A
= Limit = 0 and therefore = o , A > 0, B > 0. (11)
K n K nB
As illustrated in Fig. 1, the present approach using Eq. 9 accurately correlates the data
of both Loyalka and Hamoodi (1990) using the theoretically predicted upper limit value of
o = 1.358 and Tison and Tilford (1993) using an adjusted upper limit value of o = 1.205.
Consequently, the data of Loyalka and Hamoodi (1990) is correlated as

log(1.358/ 1) = 0.4348logKn 0.7496, R 2 = 0.9871. (12)

Thus, A = 0.1780 and B = 0.4348. On the other hand, the data of Tison and Tilford
(1993) is correlated as

log (1.205/ 1) = 0.365logKn 0.7011, R 2 = 0.9486. (13)

Thus, A = 0.199 and B = 0.365.

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Effective Correlation of Apparent Gas Permeability in Tight Porous Media 379

Fig. 2 Data of Loyalka and Hamoodi (1990) can be correlated accurately by both the present correlation
approach using Eq. 9 with a coefficient of regression of R2 = 0.9871 and the empirical equation given by
Beskok and Karniadakis (1999) with a coefficient of regression of R 2 = 0.9697 using the theoretically pre-
dicted value of o = 1.358. However, as indicated by the comparison of the coefficients of regressions, the
present approach yields a more accurate correlation than that of Beskok and Karniadakis (1999)

Figure 2 shows that the data of Loyalka and Hamoodi (1990) can be correlated accu-
rately by both the present correlation approach using Eq. 9 with a coefficient of regres-
sion of R 2 = 0.9871 and the empirical equation given by Beskok and Karniadakis (1999)
with a coefficient of regression of R 2 = 0.9697 using the theoretically predicted value of
o = 1.358. However, as indicated by the comparison of the coefficients of regressions, the
present approach yields a more accurate correlation than that of Beskok and Karniadakis
(1999).
Figure 3 shows that the present correlation with Eq. 9 using the adjusted value of o =
1.205 represents the data of Tison and Tilford (1993) accurately with a coefficient of regres-
sion of R 2 = 0.9486, close to 1.0. In contrast, the empirical equation given by Beskok and
Karniadakis (1999) using the adjusted value of o = 1.19 leads to a lower quality correlation
with a coefficient of regression of R 2 = 0.7925, less than 1.0. As indicated by the com-
parison of the coefficients of regressions, the present approach yields a much more accurate
correlation than that of Beskok and Karniadakis (1999).
It is concluded that the present simple inverse power-law expression yields more accurate
correlation of the dimensionless rarefaction coefficient with coefficients of regressions very
close to 1.0 in both cases and therefore more suitable than the empirical equation given by
Beskok and Karniadakis (1999).

3 Derivation of the Apparent Gas Permeability Equation

The Beskok and Karniadakis (1999) unified HagenPoiseuille-type equation (Eq. 2) derived
for flow qh through a single pipe can now be applied for the volumetric gas flow through a
bundle of tortuous flow paths as:

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380 F. Civan

Fig. 3 Present correlation with Eq. 9 using the adjusted value of o = 1.205 represents the data of Tison and
Tilford (1993) accurately with a coefficient of regression of R 2 = 0.9486, very close to 1.0. However, the
empirical equation given by Beskok and Karniadakis (1999) using the adjusted value of o = 1.19 leads to a
lower quality correlation with a coefficient of regression of R 2 = 0.7925, less than 1.0. As indicated by the
comparison of the coefficients of regressions, the present approach yields a much more accurate correlation
than that of Beskok and Karniadakis (1999)

Rh4 p
q = nqh = n f (K n) , (14)
8 L h
where L h denotes the length of the tortuous flow paths and n denotes the number of pref-
erential hydraulic flow paths formed in porous media. The latter can be approximated by
rounding the value calculated by the following equation to the nearest integer (Civan 2007)
Ab
n= , (15)
Rh2
where is porosity and Ab is the bulk surface area of porous media normal to flow direction.
The symbol q denotes the total volumetric flow through porous media. It can be described
macroscopically by a Darcy-type gradient-law of flow, where the flow is assumed propor-
tional to the pressure gradient given by
K Ab p
q= , (16)
L
where K denotes the apparent gas permeability of tight porous media and L is the length of
bulk porous media.
Note that Eq. 16 is used frequently, although it is not rigorously correct. The corrections
required on Eq.16, such as the effect of the threshold pressure gradient (Prada and Civan
1999), are provided elsewhere by Civan (2008), but are ignored here to avoid unnecessary
complications for purposes of the present discussion and derivation. Nevertheless, Civan
(2008) argued that such corrections are usually negligible for gaseous flow, although the
validity of such claim for tight porous media needs detailed investigation.

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Effective Correlation of Apparent Gas Permeability in Tight Porous Media 381

The tortuosity factor h of hydraulic preferential flow paths in porous media is defined by
Lh
h = . (17)
L
Hence, the following expression can be derived for the apparent gas permeability by
combining Eqs. 1417:

K = K f (K n), (18)

where K denotes the liquid permeability of porous media given by

Rh2
K = . (19)
8h
Equation 19 can be rearranged to express the hydraulic tube diameter as

 K
Rh = 2 2h . (20)

Alternatively, it can be shown for a pack of porous media grains that (Civan 2007)


2
Rh = , (21)
g 1
where g denotes the specific grain surface in porous media. Hence, equating Eqs. 20 and
21 yields the well-known Kozeny-Carman equation of permeability as (Carman 1956; Civan
2007)


K 1
= . (22)
g 2h 1

The function f (K n) does not appear in Eq. 22 because the intrinsic permeability K of
porous media is only a property of porous media and does not depend on the fluid type and
flow condition.
The formulation presented by Florence et al. (2007) for the apparent gas permeability
of tight porous media considered flow through a single straight pipe and therefore needs
corrections, according to the procedure described above.

4 Correlation of the Klinkenberg Gas Slippage Factor

Under slip flow conditions, = 0 and b = 1, and therefore Eq. 18 combined with Eq. 3
can be written as:


4K n
K = K 1 + (23)
1 + Kn
Florence et al. (2007) approximate this equation for K n << 1, upon substitution of the
Kn number expression Eq. 4 as:


4
K
= K (1 + 4K n) = K 1 + (24)
Rh

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382 F. Civan

whereas the equation of Klinkenberg (1941) is given by:


bK
K = K 1 + , (25)
p
where bk is the slippage factor. Comparing Eqs. 24 and 25 yields an expression as
4 p
bK = 4 pK n = . (26)
Rh
Substituting Eqs. 5 and 20 into Eq. 26 results in:


K 1/2
bK = , (27)

where the coefficient is defined by
 
2 Rg T
= p , or = . (28)
h h M
Figure 4 indicates that the present Eq. 28 yields an accurate correlation for the data of
Florence et al. (2007) involving the flow of various gases (hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, air,
and carbon dioxide) in a given porous medium (sandstone) under isothermal conditions
(assumed as 298K) as the following:

Rg T 2.79 103
= = (29)
h M M
where is in Pa.m, in Pa.s, and M is in kg/kmol.
The results reported in Table 1 indicate that the values calculated by Eq. 29 obtained by
correlating the coefficient divided by the viscosity versus the square-root of the molecular
mass, according to Eq. 28 accurately match the data of Florence et al. (2007). In contrast,
the values calculated using the correlation developed by Florence et al. (2007), also given
in Table 1, differ significantly from the same data because they correlated the coefficient
directly (i.e. without dividing by the gas viscosity) by an inverse-power-law function of the
molecular mass, expressed here in the consistent SI units as:
= 0.06366M 0.586 , (30)
where is in Pa.m and M is in kg/kmol. In view of Eq. 28, their approach is not rigorously
correct because the effect of viscosity was ignored in their correlation.
Note that Eqs. 2628 can be used to derive an expression for the Knudsen number as

bK Rg T 1 1/2 1/2
Kn = = K . (31)
4p 4 h M p
For example, applying the correlation given by Eq. 29 to Eq. 31 yields:
698 1 1/2 1/2
Kn = K . (32)
M p
Therefore
2.79 103 1/2 1/2
bk = K , (33)
M

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Effective Correlation of Apparent Gas Permeability in Tight Porous Media 383

Fig. 4 Present approach yields an accurate correlation of the [(/), m/s] parameter versus the molecular
mass (M, kg/kmol) for the data of Florence et al. (2007) for flow of various gases (hydrogen, helium, nitrogen,
air, and carbon dioxide) in sandstone under 298 K isothermal conditions. The coefficient of regression is almost
equal to 1.0 indicating that the present correlation approach is rigorous

Table 1 Comparison of the values indicate that the present correlation approach reproduces the data with
high accuracy

Gas Data of Florence et al. (2007) , Pa.m

Molecular Viscosity at 1 Data of Present Correlation of

mass, kg/kmol atm and 298K, Florence et al. correlation of Florence et al.
Pa.s (2007) Civan (2007)

Hydrogen 2.0159 8.845E-06 1.74E-02 1.74E-02 4.22E-02

Helium 4.0026 1.985E-05 2.77E-02 2.77E-02 2.82E-02
Nitrogen 28.01348 1.781E-05 9.39E-03 9.39E-03 9.03E-03
Air 28.9586 1.842E-05 9.55E-03 9.55E-03 8.86E-03
Carbon dioxide 44.0095 1.503E-05 6.32E-03 6.32E-03 6.93E-03
In contrast, the values calculated by the correlation developed by Florence et al. (2007) differ from the data
significantly

where bk is in Pa, in Pa.s, M is in kg/kmol, p is in Pa, K is in m2 , and is fraction.

When applied for the N2 gas, Eq. 33 yields


K 1/2
bk = 0.0094 . (34)

The coefficient 0.0094 of this equation is in the same order of magnitude as the coefficient
0.0414of Eq. 1 of Sampath and Keighin (1982) but differs by a factor of 4.4. This may be
explained due to the 0.53 value of the exponent of Eq. 1 being different than the exponent
value of 0.50 of Eq. 34 and the N2 gas flow tests conducted in the presence of water in
porous media instead of the dry porous media considered by Florence et al. (2007).

123
384 F. Civan

As a bonus, Eq. 29 reveals that the tortuosity h of the preferential hydraulic flow paths in
the porous medium is given by, expressed in the consisted SI units
Rg T
h = , (35)
7.78 106
where Rg is 8314 J/kmol-K and T is in K. Equation 35 may be used in determining the tortuos-
ity of porous media. For example, the tortuosity is estimated to be h = 1.0 for the sandstone
sample used in the tests assuming a temperature of 298 K, according to Florence et al. (2007).
However, Florence et al. (2007) mention that the actual temperature was unknown for the data
involved in their studies and they simply assumed the value of 298 K for their calculations.

5 Conclusions

The present approach rigorously accounts for the effect of the characteristic parameters of
porous media including intrinsic permeability, porosity, and tortuosity on the apparent gas
permeability, rarefaction coefficient, and Klinkenberg gas slippage factor. Improved formu-
lations presented in this study have been proven to be instrumental in accurate correlation of
experimental data for effective description of gas flow in tight porous media. This has been
demonstrated by correlating the available data more accurately than the previous attempts.

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