AN ALTERNATIVE FORM OF THE DARCY EQUATION

This study presents an alternative form of the Darcy equation. This alternative form will be presented with the use of Bejan number (Be) in the left hand side of the equation. The main advantage in this alternative form of the Darcy equation is presenting both the left hand side and the right hand side as dimensionless quantities. For instance, this is similar to the relation of Fanning friction factor with Reynolds number for Hagen-Poiseuille flow (fully developed laminar flow in a circular pipe). In this study, an alternative form of the Darcy equation will be presented with the use of Bejan number (Be) in the left hand side (LHS) of the equation. Darcy’s law is a phenomenologically derived constitutive equation, which describes the fluid flow through a porous medium. This law was formulated by Henry Darcy in 1856 [1] based on his observations on the public water supply at Dijon and experiments on steady-state unidirectional flow. The refined modern form popularized in the 1937 book by Muskat [2], can be expressed: