Measurement and inverse estimation of 3D anisotropic flow resistivity for porous materials

This paper presents a new methodology for estimating the anisotropic flow resistivity for porous materials. From pressure measurements on a cubic or parallelepiped sample of a porous material, the flow resistivities are determined using inverse estimation. The core of the estimation is a series of 3D solutions to Darcy's law, where the flow resistivity tensor is varied until the sum of the quadratic errors between measured and computed pressures is minimised. The overall approach and experimental set-up used, enabling efficient measurements of high quality, are described in some detail together with the main steps of the measurement and estimation procedures. Results from a fibrous glass wool and a polyurethane foam are discussed and compared to standard measurement data.