A discussion of “Water sorptivity of unsaturated fractured sandstone: Fractal modeling and neutron radiography experiment”

Abstract

In August 2019, this journal published the paper “Water sorptivity of unsaturated fractured sandstone: Fractal modeling and neutron radiography experiment”, which reports on the experimental monitoring and analytical calculation of capillary moisture absorption in fractured sandstone. This discussion, considered a post-publication review, raises a number of concerns in relation to this paper. These concern the observed deviation between the visual and numeric results of the moisture front penetrations, the suboptimal character of the power-law equation for the temporal evolutions of the moisture penetrations, and the doubtful physical foundation for the pore fractal dimension and pore size ratio applied. These concerns threaten the validity of the disputed paper's findings and conclusions, and this discussion therefore invites its authors to refute these in their reply.