The Study of Porous Media with AC Electrokinetics
Abstract
Electrokinetic phenomena, which involve the coupling of fluid and electric currents, are present in many porous media systems. They arise from the presence of a space charge layer at the fluid/solid interface, and depend on characteristics of the interface and properties of the porous material. Although understood for years, electrokinetic phenomena have been typically too weak to use as an experimental probe of such systems. Recently we have shown that modern instrumentation, based on AC excitations, can be used to measure electrokinetic response in porous rock. From the measurements we derive the permeability of the rock exactly, and study other physicochemical properties. We review electrokinetic theory, describe our results for porous rock, and discuss present research using the AC techniques. Research supported by the Gas Research Institute, Contract 5090-260-1953, and National Science Foundation Grant DMR-9405672.
- Publication:
-
APS Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- November 1996
- Bibcode:
- 1996APS..OFM..CG01P