Threedimensional Local Porosity Analysis of Porous Media

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method for quantitatively comparing 3D pore structures in natural sandstones using local porosity and percolation probabilities, providing new tools for microstructure analysis.

Contribution

It presents the first measurement of local percolation probability functions for 3D pore space reconstructions, advancing microstructure comparison techniques.

Findings

Local porosity distributions effectively characterize pore microstructures.

Percolation probabilities reveal connectivity fluctuations in porous media.

Method enables comparison between models and experimental data.

Abstract

A quantitative comparison of the pore space geometry for three natural sandstones is presented. The comparison is based on local porosity theory which provides a geometric characterization of stochastic microstructures. The characterization focusses on porosity and connectivity fluctuations. Porosity fluctuations are measured using local porosity distributions while connectivity fluctuations are measured using local percolation probabilities. We report the first measurement of local percolation probability functions for experimentally obtained threedimensional pore space reconstructions. Our results suggest to use local porosity distributions and percolation probabilities as a quantitative method to compare microstructures between models and experiment.