Real‐time visualization of H aines jumps in sandstone with laboratory‐based microcomputed tomography

• Published in: Water resources research 2015-10, Vol.51 (10), p.8668-8676
• Main Authors: Bultreys, Tom, Boone, Marijn A., Boone, Matthieu N., De Schryver, Thomas, Masschaele, Bert, Van Loo, Denis, Van Hoorebeke, Luc, Cnudde, Veerle
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0043-1397; 1944-7973
• DOI: 10.1002/2015WR017502

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. Drainage in sandstone was visualized with bench‐top micro‐CT scanner at 12 s/scan Single‐pore and multiple pore‐filling events were analyzed by tracking gray values in individual pores Methods presented here allow to inspect the validity of percolation theory to describe the invasion