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Gas diffusion in structured materials: the effect of tri‐modal pore size distribution
Author(s) -
CURRIE J. A.,
ROSE D. A.
Publication year - 1985
Publication title -
journal of soil science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.244
H-Index - 111
eISSN - 1365-2389
pISSN - 0022-4588
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2389.1985.tb00352.x
Subject(s) - diffusion , materials science , mineralogy , range (aeronautics) , drainage , composite material , chemistry , thermodynamics , physics , ecology , biology
SUMMARY Coefficients of gas diffusion (hydrogen through air) were measured on packings of Portland stone chips over a range of water contents. The chips were obtained by crushing blocks of Portland stone on which similar gas diffusion measurements had been previously made. The packings had a tri‐modal pore‐size distribution: pores between the stone chips; pores within the chips but between ooliths; pores within the chips and within ooliths. As the water content of the packings was progressively decreased, the diffusion coefficient for the packings increased in three steps corresponding to successive drainage of the three pore modes. The previous results for the blocks were used to give good theoretical prediction of the three steps obtained by measurement. These results support earlier speculation that a similar stepwise increase in diffusion coefficient in soils might have been caused by micro‐pedal structure within soil crumbs.