X-ray imaging and analysis techniques for quantifying pore-scale structure and processes in subsurface porous medium systems

Abstract

We report here on recent developments and advances in pore-scale X-ray tomographic imaging of subsurface porous media. Our particular focus is on immiscible multi-phase fluid flow, i.e., the displacement of one immiscible fluid by another inside a porous material, which is of central importance to many natural and engineered processes. Multiphase flow and displacement can pose a rather difficult problem, both because the underlying physics is complex, and also because standard laboratory investigation reveals little about the mechanisms that control micro-scale processes. X-ray microtomographic imaging is a non-destructive technique for quantifying these processes in three dimensions within individual pores, and as we report here, with rapidly increasing spatial and temporal resolution.