COMPUTERIZED CHARACTERIZATION OF THE GEOMETRY OF REAL POROUS-MEDIA - THEIR DISCRETIZATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

Real or reconstructed porous media can be discretized as a series of e lementary cubes, which are filled either with a solid or a fluid phase . Various algorithms, based on pseudo-diffusion processes, are propose d to determine the connected and percolating components of the pore sp ace. The graph of the pore space is obtained by two different methods; the most efficient is based upon homotopic thinning. Topological char acteristics, such as the number of loops, are derived. Systematic appl ications of these algorithms are illustrated on computer reconstructio ns of various sandstones.