Capillary Pressure Curve for Liquid Menisci in a Cubic Assembly of Spherical Particles Below Irreducible Saturation

The capillary pressure–saturation relationship, P _c(S _w), is an essential element in modeling two-phase flow in porous media (PM). In most practical cases of interest, this relationship, for a given PM, is obtained experimentally, due to the irregular shape of the void space. We present the P _c(S _w) curve obtained by basic considerations, albeit for a particular class of regular PM. We analyze the characteristics of the various segments of the capillary pressure curve. The main features are the behavior of the P _c(S _w) curve as the wetting-fluid saturation approaches zero, and as this saturation is increased beyond a certain critical value. We show that under certain conditions (contact angle, distance between spheres, and saturation), the value of the capillary pressure may change sign.