Using the theory of homogenization we examine the correction to Darcy's law due to weak convective inertia of the pore fluid. General formulae are derived for all constitutive coefficients that can be calculated by numerical solution of certain canonical cell problems. For isotropic and homogeneous media the correction term is found to be cubic in the seepage velocity, hence remains small even for Reynolds numbers which are not very small. This implies that inertia, if it is weak, is of greater importance locally than globally. Existing empirical knowledge is qualitatively consistent with our conclusion since the linear law of Darcy is often accurate for moderate flow rates.

In homogeneous porous media, the analytical expression of the dispersion tensor D* can be calculated by the method of moments and by a multiple scale expansion; the symmetric component of this tensor is identical in both cases. Numerically, D* can be computed by two methods, namely the B equation and random walks. The porous media are modeled as being spatially periodic; D* is determined as a function of the Péclet number for four types of unit cells: deterministic, fractal, random, and reconstructed. A systematic comparison is made with existing numerical and experimental data. The long time behavior, and its Gaussian limit, is documented.

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The homogenization process applied to fi ne periodic deformable saturated porous medium under dynamic solicitations leads to the macroscopic description. This method enables us to perform a complete calculation of the effective parameters. The main fact is that the farmulation so obtained-similar to Biot's results-exhibits a generalized example of Darcy's law which contains all the dynamic couplings between the two phases. After recalling the main facts of the subject this work presents some properties of the generalized Darcy coefficient and an experimental checking. An agreement between experimental and numerical results using the homogenization process is obtained.

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An increasing number of articles are adopting Brinkman's equation in place of Darcy's law for describing flow in porous media. That poses the question of the respective domains of validity of both laws, as well as the question of the value of the effective viscosity µ e which is present in Brinkman's equation. These two topics are addressed in this article, mainly by a priori estimates and by recalling existing analyses. Three main classes of porous media can be distinguished: "classical" porous media with a connected solid structure where the pore surface S p is a function of the characteristic pore size l p (such as for cylindrical pores), swarms of low concentration fixed particles where the pore surface is a function of the characteristic particle size l s , and fiber-made porous media at low solid concentration where the pore surface is a function of the fiber diameter. If Brinkman's 3D flow equation is valid to describe the flow of a Newtonian fluid through a swarm of fixed particles or fibrous media at low concentration under very precise conditions (Lévy 1983), then we show that it cannot apply to the flow of such a fluid through classical porous media.

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