CONTAINER MEDIUM CHARACTERIZATION BY SCANNING ELECTRON-MICROSCOPY ANDCOMPARISON WITH A MONTE-CARLO COMPUTER-SIMULATED MEDIUM

A 1:1 by volume pine bark and sand containermedium was embedded with S purr's epoxy resin and cross-sectioned for SEM characterization of par ticle distribution. A Monte Carlo computer simulated medium was built with spheres of the same particle size distribution as the pine bark a nd sand grains used in the experiment. Cross-sections from the simulat ed systems were compared with actual experimental data and good agreem ent was obtained. SEM makes it possible to analyze particle and pore d istribution of container media. Computer simulation provides a good ap proximation of container medium structure and may prove useful in esti mating properties of container medium mixtures.