Reference: D.P. Bentz and N.S. Martys, Transport in Porous Media, 17 (3) 221-238 (1995).
Methods for reconstructing three-dimensional porous media from
two-dimensional cross sections are evaluated in terms of the
transport properties of the reconstructed systems. Two-dimensional
slices are selected at random from model three-dimensional
microstructures, based on penetrable spheres,
and processed to create a reconstructed
representation of the original system. Permeability, conductivity,
and a critical pore diameter are computed for the original and
reconstructed microstructures to assess the validity of the
reconstruction technique. A surface curvature algorithm is
utilized to further modify the reconstructed systems by matching
the hydraulic radius of the reconstructed three-dimensional system
to that of the two-dimensional slice. While having only minor
effects on conductivity, this modification significantly improves
the agreement between permeabilities and critical diameters of the
original and reconstructed systems for porosities in the range of
25-40%. For lower porosities, critical pore diameter is unaffected
by the curvature modification so that little improvement between
original and reconstructed permeabilities is obtained by matching
hydraulic radii.
Keywords: building technology, conductivity, critical diameter, hydraulic radius, permeability, porous media, reconstruction