Introduction

Abstract

Creation of essentially new technologies in the recovery of mineral resources is impossible without a thorough research in fluid transfer phenomena in rocks. However it appears unreasonable to expect discovery of new physical effects in fluid flow in porous media if traditional continuous media models are applied. In these models, the huge variety of rock types is taken account of by varying the coefficients of permeability and porosity in the equations describing fluid flow. With this approach, the coefficient of phase permeability is the only parameter that bears information about pore space structure of rocks; experimental determination of this coefficient, however, is of considerable technical difficulty.