Evaluation of Pressure-dependent Permeability in Rock by Means of the Tracer-aided X-ray CT
ABSTRACT. X-ray Computed Tomography is successfully applied to the visualization of water flow in rock, and to the quantitative determination of the intrinsic permeability under various effective confining pressures. In a specific pressure vessel, one-dimensional water permeation test is performed. The transport diffusion phenomena of tracer is visualized and analyzed so as to evaluate the mean pore velocity of water in rock under the saturated condition, by utilizing the subtraction of CT images along with the data stacking technique. The intrinsic permeability is determined, based upon the Darcy’s law. Case example clarify that the tracer-aided x-ray CT is a promising tool available for the evaluating the intrinsic permeability influenced by the effective confining pressure.
KEYWORDS: rock, visualization, permeability, effective confining pressure, tracer, x-ray CT
1. Introduction
Knowledge of water flow in rock is important for the design and construction of radioactive waste disposal, since the mass transfer phenomenon of radioactive nuclear matter is deeply associated with water current in rock strata, which is expected to play an important role as a natural barrier. Rock ...
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