Homogenization of Wall-Slip Gas Flow Through Porous Media

The permeability of reservoir rocks is most commonly measured with an atmospheric gas. Permeability is greater for a gas than for a liquid. The Klinkenberg equation gives a semi-empirical relation between the liquid and gas permeabilities. In this paper, the wall-slip gas flow problem is homogenized. This problem is described by the steady state, low velocity Navier–Stokes equations for a compressible gas with a small Knudsen number. Darcy's law with a permeability tensor equal to that of liquid flow is shown to be valid to the lowest order. The lowest order wall-slip correction is a local tensorial form of the Klinkenberg equation. The Klinkenberg permeability is a positive tensor. It is in general not symmetric, but may under some conditions, which we specify, be symmetric. Our result reduces to the Klinkenberg equation for constant viscosity gas flow in isotropic media.