Percolativity of Porous Media

Abstract

Connectivity and connectedness are nonadditive geometric functionals on the set of pore scale structures. They determine transport of mass, volume or momentum in porous media, because without connectivity there cannot be transport. Percolativity of porous media is introduced here as a geometric descriptor of connectivity, that can be computed from the pore scale and persists to the macroscale through a suitable upscaling limit. It is a measure that combines local percolation probabilities with a probability density of ratios of eigenvalues of the tensor of local percolating directions. Percolativity enters directly into generalized effective medium approximations. Predictions from these generalized effective medium approximations are found to be compatible with apparently anisotropic Archie correlations observed in experiment.

Emergence of preferential flow paths and intermittent dynamics in emulsion transport in porous media

“…44 Moreover, the balance between viscous and capillary forces does not change dramatically to mobilize a large number of droplets. 45,46 To quantify the emerging flow paths within the medium, we track individual emulsions and superimpose the paths taken by these emulsions as shown in Fig. 5.…”