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Authors :
Wilko K.P. van Loon
Gert-Jaap van Dijk
Michael C. Sukop
E. Perfect
Source :
Transport in Porous Media. 48:187-208
Publication Year :
2002
Publisher :
Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2002.

Abstract

Considerable effort has been directed towards the application of percolation theory and fractal modeling to porous media. We combine these areas of research to investigate percolation in prefractal porous media. We estimated percolation thresholds in the pore space of homogeneous random 2-dimensional prefractals as a function of the fractal scale invariance ratio b and iteration level i. The percolation thresholds for these simulations were found to increase beyond the 0.5927l... porosity expected in Bernoulli (uncorrelated) percolation networks. Percolation in prefractals occurs through large pores connected by small pores. The thresholds increase with both b (a finite size effect) and i. The results allow the prediction of the onset of percolation in models of prefractal porous media and can be used to bound modeling efforts. More fundamental applications are also possible. Only a limited range of parameters has been explored empirically but extrapolations allow the critical fractal dimension to be estimated for a large combination of b and i values. Extrapolation to infinite iterations suggests that there may be a critical fractal dimension of the solid at which the pore space percolates. The extrapolated value is close to 1.89 – the well-known fractal dimension of percolation clusters in 2-dimensional Bernoulli networks.

Details

ISSN :
01693913
Volume :
48
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Transport in Porous Media
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........b409c7158ecc22fa35568ea85b9bcc03
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015680828317