Permeability anisotropy measurement on whole cores-analytical solution and application

This paper presents an analytical solution for the steady-state flow problem for the anisotropic permeability measurement. It also describes a practical procedure that implements the solution to evaluate permeability anisotropy. The procedure requires a few steady-state measurements of flow rates and pressure drops at different directions from which the maximum and minimum permeability values and their directions can be determined. The application of the new solution and the proposed method is demonstrated by measurements on whole core samples. Comparison between results obtained using the new solution for the anisotropic case and the existing solution for the isotropic case is discussed.