Estimating particle size distributions from a network model of porous media

A new method is described for estimating the particle size distribution of consolidated porous materials using a network model of void structure based on mercury porosimetry. It is compared to the only other comparable method , a modification of that developed by Mayer and Stowe [R.P. Mayer, R.A. Sto we, J. Cell. Sci. 20 (1965) 893] for obtaining the radii of uniform spheres in regular packings. The methods are tested on unconsolidated materials, n amely four very different sands, a sample of glass beads of narrow size ran ge and a binary mixture of the coarsest and finest of the sands. The new me thod compares favourably with the modified Mayer and Stowe technique when e stimating the particle sizes of the unmixed sands, and is an improvement fo r the glass beads and the sand mixture. The network model used to estimate particle size distributions also successfully models the experimental liqui d permeabilities of the samples to within one order of magnitude. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science S.A. All rights reserved.