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Real‐time visualization of H aines jumps in sandstone with laboratory‐based microcomputed tomography
Author(s) -
Bultreys Tom,
Boone Marijn A.,
Boone Matthieu N.,
De Schryver Thomas,
Masschaele Bert,
Van Loo Denis,
Van Hoorebeke Luc,
Cnudde Veerle
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
water resources research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.863
H-Index - 217
eISSN - 1944-7973
pISSN - 0043-1397
DOI - 10.1002/2015wr017502
Subject(s) - workflow , drainage , geology , scale (ratio) , tomography , visualization , characterisation of pore space in soil , scaling , geotechnical engineering , computer science , petroleum engineering , porosity , physics , geometry , artificial intelligence , mathematics , optics , ecology , quantum mechanics , database , biology
In this work, we present a novel laboratory‐based microcomputed tomography (micro‐CT) experiment designed to investigate the pore‐scale drainage behavior of natural sandstone under dynamic conditions. The fluid distribution in a Bentheimer sandstone was visualized every 4 s with a 12 s measurement time, allowing the investigation of single‐pore and few‐pore‐filling events. To our knowledge, this is the first time that such measurements were performed outside of synchrotron facilities, illustrating the growing application potential of laboratory‐based micro‐CT with subminute temporal resolutions for geological research at the pore scale. To illustrate how the workflow can lead to an improved understanding of drainage behavior, the experiment was analyzed using a decomposition of the pore space into individual geometrical pores. Preliminary results from this analysis suggest that the distribution of drainage event sizes follows a power law scaling, as expected from percolation theory.