AbstractThe hydrodynamics of cocurrent gas‐liquid flow in packed beds is analyzed by extending the concept of relative permeability to the inertial regime.The relative permeabilities of the gas and liquid phases are functions of the saturation of the liquid phase. These functions are found from an analysis of experimental data. The relations obtained are used to develop empirical correlations for predicting liquid holdup and pressure drop in gas‐liquid cocurrent downflow in packed beds over a wide range of operating conditions. The correlations proposed give very good results when compared to experimental data yielding, in general, mean relative deviations lower than existing correlations. In addition, a new equation is proposed for predicting static holdup in packed beds which is based on a more physically realistic characteristic length than that used in previous stud