Abstract. Although the presence of a gas phase in sea ice creates the potential for gas exchange with the atmosphere, the distribution of gas bubbles and transport of gases within the sea ice are still poorly understood. Currently no straightforward technique exists to measure the vertical distribution of air volume fraction in sea ice. Here, we present a new fast and non-destructive X-ray computed tomography technique to quantify the air volume fraction and produce separate images of air volume inclusions in sea ice. The technique was performed on relatively thin (4-22 cm) sea ice collected from an experimental ice tank. While most of the internal layers showed air volume fractions < 2 %, the ice-air interface (top 2 cm) systematically showed values up to 5 %. We suggest that the air volume fraction is a function of both the bulk ice gas saturation factor and the brine volume fraction. We differentiate micro bubbles (Ø < 1 mm), large bubbles (1 mm < Ø < 5 mm) and macro bubbles (Ø > 5 mm). While micro bubbles were the most abundant type of gas bubbles, most of the air porosity observed resulted from the presence of large and macro bubbles. The ice texture (granular and columnar) as well as the permeability state of ice are important factors controlling the air volume fraction. The technique developed is suited for studies related to gas transport and bubble migration.
Although computed tomography (CT-Scanning) has been regularly applied to core analyses in petroleum geology, there is still a need to improve our ways to document porosity and porosity distribution in the entire pore scale spectrum, from the tens of nanometer to the meter-scale. Porosity imaging is particularly crucial for complex and heterogeneous rocks such as hydrothermally altered and fractured carbonates. The present work proposes a improved method using medical-CT to reliably estimate reservoir porosity. An in-house core-flooding setup allowed to analyse several individual core samples, scanned simultaneously (dry and saturated), as well as continuous core sections up to 1.5 m long. Without any prior knowledge of samples, three-dimensional alignment and subtraction of the two data sets (dry and saturated states) results in the generation of 3D porosity matrices. The methodology tested on a large set of reference core material shows a strong correlation between conventional gas porosimetry techniques and porosity from CT-scan. The added value of the porosity measurements by CT-scan is, first of all, the generation of 3D images of pore network, allowing to assess spatial attributes of macropores, their distribution and connectivity. Secondly, the CT-scan method also provides continuous porosity profile at the millimetric scale. Both developments are crucial for the understanding of reservoir rock properties.
Abstract. Although the presence of a gas phase in sea ice creates the potential for gas exchange with the atmosphere, the distribution of gas bubbles and transport of gases within the sea ice are still poorly understood. Currently no straightforward technique exists to measure the vertical distribution of air volume fraction in sea ice. Here, we present a new fast and non-destructive X-ray computed tomography technique to quantify the air volume fraction and produce separate 3-D images of air-volume inclusions in sea ice. The technique was performed on relatively thin (4–22 cm) sea ice collected from an experimental ice tank. While most of the internal layers showed air-volume fractions < 2 %, the ice–air interface (top 2 cm) systematically showed values up to 5 %. We suggest that the air volume fraction is a function of both the bulk ice gas saturation factor and the size of the brine channel. We differentiate micro bubbles (&emptyset; < 1 mm), large bubbles (1 < &emptyset; < 5 mm) and macro bubbles (&emptyset; > 5 mm). While micro bubbles were the most abundant type of air inclusions, most of the air porosity observed resulted from the presence of large and macro bubbles. The ice microstructure (granular and columnar) as well as the permeability state of ice are important factors controlling the air volume fraction. The technique developed is suited for studies related to gas transport and bubble migration and can help considerably improving parameterization of these processes in sea ice biogeochemical models.
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