Abstract
This work studies the flow characteristics of Ellis fluid in saturated porous media. A fractal model is developed for the effective permeability of Ellis fluid flow in porous media based on the assumptions that porous media consist of a bundle of tortuous capillaries, whose size distribution and tortuosity follow the fractal scaling laws. The average flow velocity and the effective permeability for Ellis fluid flow in porous media are derived. The proposed fractal model does not contain any empirical constant, and every parameter in the model has clear physical meaning. The model predictions are compared with the measured data, and good agreement between them is obtained.
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China through grant number 10572052.