A method is described for studying the flow of gas‐liquid mixtures through unconsolidated sands. Results are given for experiments on four sands of widely different permeabilities using carbon dioxide and water as the fluids. A relation between permeability and liquid‐saturation of the sand is found which permits the correlation of saturation and the steady state flow of the gas and liquid components. Generalization of these results for all unconsolidated sands seems permissible. The phenomena of equilibrium permeability and equilibrium liquid‐saturation are described and their significance discussed. It is believed that the experimental attack and type of analysis is applicable to the general problem of the flow of gas‐liquid mixtures through porous media.

1.
J. C.
Jamin
,
Comptes Rendus
50
,
172
(
1860
).
2.
Fricke
,
Phys. Rev.
24
,
575
(
1924
).
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3.
The results presented here, in particular as represented in Figs. 5–10, were obtained essentially in the preliminary work as early as 1933. The apparatus and experiments described briefly in this paper were made primarily to amplify and confirm certain details of the broad general picture which resulted from these earlier experiments.
4.
To avoid the possibility of misinterpretation we wish to emphasize that unless otherwise stated, permeabilities given represent specific permeability expressed in darcys. For example, the maximum permeability (100 percent on the ordinate) of the sand represented in Fig. 5 is 17.8 darcys for either gas or liquid, which means that for a pressure gradient of 1 atmosphere per centimeter, 17.8 cc of water of viscosity 1 centipoise will flow through each cm2 cross section of sand per second. On the other hand if CO2 gas having a viscosity of 0.015 centipoise is the fluid, its volume rate of flow at the mean pressure in the sand with a pressure gradient of 1 atmosphere per cm will be 17.8/0.015 = 1186 cc per sec.
5.
Usual units in American petroleum technology.
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© 1936 American Institute of Physics.
1936
American Institute of Physics
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