Characterization of multi-scale microstructural features in Opalinus Clay
By L. Keller, P. Schuetz, R. Erni, Marta D. Rossell, F. Lucas, Philippe Gasser, L. Holzer. 2013
180 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Abstract STEM-, FIB- and X-ray tomography were applied to a sample taken from the Opalinus Clay unit. This allowed characterization of the pore structure in the fine-grained clay matrix at different levels of microstructural detail. On the level of detail that can be resolved by FIB-nt, the observed pore space is largely unconnected and the resolved porosity was in the 2–3 Vol.% range. At higher optical magnification but for smaller sample sizes, STEM tomography resolved a porosity of around 13 Vol.%. This suggests that the transition from an unconnected to a connected pore space in the shale sample occurs on the few nanometer scale. Geometric analyses of larger pores as visualized by FIB-nt revealed that dilation induced formation of bridges of only a few hundred nanometers between tips of neighboring pores may lead to a coalescence of larger pores. The resulting large pore network may allow for gas transport in the fine-grained clay matrix.
Subfields: Civil and Structural Engineering, Environmental Engineering, Mechanics of Materials
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/3010e4a81dcee17ada29271ae6a1ce0d4d402cd5
How researchers see this paper
The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.
In Civil and Structural Engineering
In Mechanics of Materials
Citations in the corpus
- Quantitative X-ray tomography (2014, methodology): “For example, micro-CT has been powerfully complemented by FIB serial sectioning and electron tomography to characterise the pore structure in catalysts across four orders of magnitude(257) as well as clays.(258) Similarly taken together, X-ray and serial sectioning electron tomography can provide bo”