Programme

P.63 -- Posters, VCTP-51

Date: Thursday, 6 August 2026

Time: 09:30 - 10:30

A Capillary Bundle Model for Relative Permeability in Unsaturated Porous Media

Luong Duy Thanh and Nguyen Van Nghia

Thuyloi University

A physically-based model for relative permeability in partially saturated porous media is developed using the bundle-of-capillaries framework combined with a similarly skewed pore-size distribution. The proposed model relates permeability to pore-structure characteristics and water saturation. Numerical results indicate that relative permeability increases with effective water saturation but decreases as the pore-size distribution becomes increasingly skewed toward smaller pores. The model is validated against published experimental data, showing good agreement and performance comparable to that of the van Genuchten model. Overall, the proposed framework provides a simple and physically interpretable approach for analyzing fluid transport in partially saturated porous media.

Presenter: Nguyen Van Nghia