EVALUATION OF IMBIBITION PROCESS IN POROUS MEDIA BY INVADED PERCOLATION PROBABILITY

Authors

  • Junichiro Takeuchi
  • Masayuki Fujihara

Keywords:

Water Retention Property, Pore-network, Percolation Theory, Invasion Percolation

Abstract

The water retention capacity of soil is determined by the texture and structure of the soil and
the physical properties of the grain surface. Specifically, it is influenced by various factors such as size and
shape of pore, connectivity to neighboring pores, and the contact angle of grains in a bottom-up manner. The
water retention curve, a relationship between retained water in soil and matric potential, can exhibit different
shapes depending on such factors. However, in our previous numerical experiments with a pore-network
model, we suggested that the various water retention curves can be integrated into an almost identical curve
regardless of different pore-size distributions when variously saturated porous media are evaluated by an
evaluation index derived from the percolation theory. The evaluation method is called invaded percolation
probability here, and it was extended from the percolation probability, which evaluates the degree of network
connectivity. In this study, more detailed numerical experiments for imbibition process were conducted and
the applicability of the invaded percolation probability was investigated. Our results indicated that a common
curve of the invaded percolation probability was obtained if pores in the pore-network did not have any
correlation with their neighboring pores. In a case where the pore-network had some spatial structure, we
found that a different curve of the invaded percolation probability was obtained, and this evaluation method
was applicable unless the structure was disturbed.

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Published

2018-09-28

How to Cite

Junichiro Takeuchi, & Masayuki Fujihara. (2018). EVALUATION OF IMBIBITION PROCESS IN POROUS MEDIA BY INVADED PERCOLATION PROBABILITY. GEOMATE Journal, 14(46), 1–7. Retrieved from https://geomatejournal.com/geomate/article/view/2814

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