Abstract
The development and application of a strategy are presented, for estimating the full tensor of hydraulic permeability of porous media, without any a priori assumption on the principal directions. A comprehensive description of the X-ray tomographic and image analysis techniques is drawn for the quantitative morphological characterization of the pore space. Pore-scale Direct Numerical Simulation is used to compute the velocity and pressure fields in the digital pore space, reconstructed from high-resolution X-ray tomography. A commercial Finite Volume fluid dynamic solver is used, which operates on voxel-based computational meshes. The proposed methodology is validated by reproducing literature results on monodisperse periodic arrays of spheres. The hydraulic permeability of real-life porous media, characterized by highly complex morphology, is compared with laboratory experimental measurements.
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Piller, M., Schena, G., Nolich, M. et al. Analysis of Hydraulic Permeability in Porous Media: From High Resolution X-ray Tomography to Direct Numerical Simulation. Transp Porous Med 80, 57–78 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-009-9338-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-009-9338-9