## Encyclopedia > Permeability

Article Content

# Permeability

In physics and electrical engineering, permeability is the degree of magnetisation of a material in response to a magnetic field. Absolute permeability is represented by the symbol μ.

$\mu = \frac {B} {H},$

where B is the magnetic flux density (also called the magnetic induction) in the material and H is the magnetic field strength.

In SI units, magnetic flux density is measured in tesla, magnetic field strength in ampere per metre and permeability in henrys per metre.

Relative permeability, sometimes denoted by the symbol μr and often simply by μ, is the ratio of the absolute permeability to the permeability of free space μ0.

μ0 = 4π × 10-7 N·A-2 (exactly)

In geology, permeability is a measure of the ability of a material (typically, a rock) to transmit fluids. It is of great importance in determining the flow characteristics of hydrocarbons in oil and gas reservoirs and of water in aquifers. The usual unit for permeability is the darcy, or more commonly the milli-darcy or md (1 darcy = 1 x 10-12.m2). Permeability is used to calculate flow-rates using Darcy's law[?].

For a rock to be considered as an exploitable hydrocarbon reservoir, its permeability must be greater than approximately 100 md (depending on the nature of the hydrocarbon - gas reservoirs with lower permeabilities are still exploitable because of the lower viscosity of gas with respect to oil). Rocks with permeabilities significantly lower than 100 md can form efficient seals (see petroleum geology). Unconsolidated sands may have permeabilities of 5000+ md.

All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

Search Encyclopedia
 Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!

Featured Article
 Eve (rapper) ... went solo as Eve of Destruction. After a period of working as a stripper, Eve returned to hip hop at the encouragement of pop superstar Mase; she recorded "Eve of ...