Water and oil permeability of poroelastic potato discs

The aim of this study was to determine the permeability of water and oil through porous potato discs by developing an engineering model using Darcy’s law relation, mass balance equation, and poroelasticity relations at temperatures between 25–80°C. A finite element package was used to solve these equations in order to obtain the flow velocity at different pressure levels. The water permeability values were in the range of (2 to 4) × 10^-15 m² for the temperature range from 70–80°C, and the oil permeability values were in the range of (2 to 12) × 10^-15 m² for the temperature range from 25–70°C under the applied pressure range of 138 to 345 kPa. The moisture and oil content of the potato discs were measured experimentally both before and after each permeability experiment. An Arrhenius model was used to represent permeability as a function of water or oil content, and temperature. The velocity-pressure gradient data of oil and water through the potato discs exhibited a threshold pressure gradient, which needed to be overcome to initiate fluid flow.