• Journal of the Mineralogical Society of Korea
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.313-324
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• 2009

We explore the effect of particle shape and size on 3-dimensional (3D) network and pore structure of porous earth materials composed of glass beads and silica gel using NMR micro-imaging in order to gain better insights into relationship between structure and the corresponding hydrologic and seismological properties. The 3D micro-imaging data for the model porous networks show that the specific surface area, porosity, and permeability range from 2.5 to $9.6\;mm^2/mm^3$, from 0.21 to 0.38, and from 11.6 to 892.3 D (Darcy), respectively, which are typical values for unconsolidated sands. The relationships among specific surface area, porosity, and permeability of the porous media are relatively well explained with the Kozeny equation. Cube counting fractal dimension analysis shows that fractal dimension increases from ~2.5－2.6 to 3.0 with increasing specific surface area from 2.5 to $9.6\;mm^2/mm^3$, with the data also suggesting the effect of porosity. Specific surface area, porosity, permeability, and cube counting fractal dimension for the natural mongolian sandstone are $0.33\;mm^2/mm^3$, 0.017, 30.9 mD, and 1.59, respectively. The current results highlight that NMR micro-imaging, together with detailed statistical analyses can be useful to characterize 3D pore structures of various porous earth materials and be potentially effective in accounting for transport properties and seismic wave velocity and attenuation of diverse porous media in earth crust and interiors.