Abstract
Wetting, drying and permeation processes in various porous materials are of special interest to soil science and agriculture, building science and chemical engineering. Direct experimental study of unsaturated flow within such materials is hampered by the difficulty of detecting with precision changes in their internal water content distributions. In laboratory work on soils gravimetric sampling is widely used1. However, this is a destructive method which interferes with water flow processes and in any case is not easy to apply accurately to rigid materials such as permeable rocks, ceramics and building materials, γ-ray attenuation is the only established non-destructive instrumental method in laboratory use2,3. We report the first use of a nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) imaging technique to monitor the dynamics of the internal water content distribution in several porous inorganic materials during capillary inflow.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 51 print issues and online access
$199.00 per year
only $3.90 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Black, C. A. Methods of Soil Analysis Part 1 (Am. Inst. Agronomy, Madison, 1965).
Nielsen, A. F. Build. Sci. 7, 257–263 (1972).
Davidson, J. M., Biggar, J. W., Nielsen, D. R., Warrick, A. W. & Cassel, D. R. in Water in the Unsaturated Zone: Proc. Wageningen Symposium 1, 214–223 (International Ass. of Scientific Hydrology/UNESCO, Paris, 1969).
Hinshaw, W. S., Bottomley, P. A. & Holland, G. N. Nature 270, 722–723 (1977).
Hinshaw, W. S., Andrew, E. R., Bottomley, P. A., Holland, G. N., Moore, W. S. & Worthington, B. S. Br. J. Radiol. 51, 273–280 (1978).
Hinshaw, W. S. et al. Br. J. Radiol. 52, 36–43 (1979).
Hall, C. Build. Envir. 12, 117–125 (1977).
Philip, J. R. Adv. Hydrosci. 5, 215–296 (1965).
Vos, B. H. & Tammes, E. Moisture and Moisture Transfer in Porous Materials, Rep. no. BI-69-96, Institute TNO for Building Materials and Building Structures (Delft, 1969).
Childs, E. C. & Collis-George, N. Proc. R. Soc. A201, 392–405 (1950).
Cammerer, W. F. Proc. Second International CIB/RILEM Symp. on Moisture in Buildings (Rotterdam, 1974).
Nielsen, A. F. Report no. 41, Thermal Insulation Laboratory, Technical University of Denmark, Copenhagen (January 1976).
Swartzendruber, D. in Flow Through Porous Media (ed. De Wiest, R. J. M.) 215–292 (Academic, New York, 1969).
Bruce, R. R. & Klute, A. Proc. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. 20, 458–462 (1956).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Gummerson, R., Hall, C., Hoff, W. et al. Unsaturated water flow within porous materials observed by NMR imaging. Nature 281, 56–57 (1979). https://doi.org/10.1038/281056a0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/281056a0
This article is cited by
-
Hygrothermal properties and heat transfer analysis of silica aerogel incorporated cementitious composites
Heat and Mass Transfer (2023)
-
A review on the applications of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) in the oil and gas industry: laboratory and field-scale measurements
Journal of Petroleum Exploration and Production Technology (2022)
-
Spontaneous Capillary Imbibition of Water and Nonaqueous Liquids into Dry Quarry Limestones
Transport in Porous Media (2020)
-
Three-Dimensional Electrical Impedance Tomography to Monitor Unsaturated Moisture Ingress in Cement-Based Materials
Transport in Porous Media (2016)
-
Sensor for Monitoring the Moisture in Porous Materials
International Journal of Thermophysics (2013)
Comments
By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate.
