EGU2020-2992
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2992
EGU General Assembly 2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Combined numerical and experimental study of microstructure and permeability in porous granular media

Philipp Eichheimer1, Marcel Thielmann1, Wakana Fujita2, Gregor J. Golabek1, Michihiko Nakamura2, Satoshi Okumura2, Takayuki Nakatani2, and Maximilian O. Kottwitz3
Philipp Eichheimer et al.
  • 1Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth, Bayreuth, Germany (Philipp.Eichheimer@uni-bayreuth.de)
  • 2Department of Earth Science, Tohoku University, Japan
  • 3Institute of Geoscience, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany

Fluid flow on different scales is of interest for several Earth science disciplines like petrophysics, hydrogeology and volcanology. To parameterize fluid flow in large-scale numerical simulations (e.g. groundwater and volcanic systems), flow properties on the microscale need to be considered. For this purpose experimental and numerical investigations of flow through porous media over a wide range of porosities are necessary. In the present study we sinter glass bead media with various porosities, representing shallow depth crustal sediments. The microstructure, namely effective porosity and effective specific surface, is investigated using image processing. We furthermore determine flow properties like hydraulic tortuosity and permeability using both experimental measurements and numerical simulations. By fitting microstructural and flow properties to porosity, we obtain a modified Kozeny-Carman equation for isotropic low-porosity media, that can be used to simulate permeability in large-scale numerical models. To verify the modified Kozeny-Carman equation we compare it to the numerically computed and experimentally measured permeability values.

How to cite: Eichheimer, P., Thielmann, M., Fujita, W., Golabek, G. J., Nakamura, M., Okumura, S., Nakatani, T., and Kottwitz, M. O.: Combined numerical and experimental study of microstructure and permeability in porous granular media, EGU General Assembly 2020, Online, 4–8 May 2020, EGU2020-2992, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu2020-2992, 2020

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