Confocal scanning laser microscopy applied to the study of pore and crack networks in rocks

3D visualisation of pore structures in cement-based materials by LSCM

“…The depth depends on the power of the laser beam and on the absorption spectrum of the sample. The main advantage of LSCM is its ability to obtain optical sections of a sample at different depths in a non-destructive way (Fredrich, 1999;Head and Buenfeld, 2006;Menédez et al, 2001).…”

“…The extended pot-life thus allows sufficient time both for complete degassing of the epoxy under vacuum prior to sample impregnation and for the epoxy to penetrate completely into the pore space during vacuum-impregnation of the sample. The samples were stored at room temperature for 24 h and cured at 608C for 8 h. Finally, the samples were ground and polished using a 0Á25 ìm diamond compound (Fredrich et al, 1995;Kurumisawa and Tanaka, 2006;Lee et al, 2006;Menédez et al, 2001).…”

A mathematical model for seepage of deeply buried groundwater under higher pressure and temperature

“…At the same time he pointed out that as a result, rock physical structure will change to a lower bulk density than that of unshocked rock, causing a sudden decrease in formation porosity and hence formation permeability. Menendez et al (2001) applied confocal scanning laser microscopy to investigate the important geological processes including cementation and diagenetic compaction in sandstone and hydrothermal alteration in granular materials. They concluded that the large drop in permeability (six orders of magnitude), when comparing non-altered to altered samples, is due to a complete change of the pore structure and a strong reduction of the mean pore size.…”

Three‐dimensional imaging of porous media using confocal laser scanning microscopy

“…The first application of the CLSM technique to geomaterials started in the early 1990s by Petford and Miller (1990) who used it to study fission tracks. CLSM has been used for examining pores and pore networks in sandstone reservoir rocks (Fredrich, Greaves, & Martin, 1993;Fredrich, 1995;Petford, Davidson, & Miller, 1999;Fredrich, 1999;Menendez, David, & Nistal, 2001), and also for characterising porosity in hardened concrete (Head & Buenfeld, 2006). The CLSM technique has not been widely used in imaging 3D geomaterials due to the limitation of depth information.…”