FRACTAL DIMENSIONALITY OF PORE AND GRAIN VOLUME OF A SILICICLASTIC MARINE SAND

Three-dimensional (3D) spatial distributions of pore and grain volumes were determined from high-resolution computer tomography (CT) images of resin-impregnated marine sands. Using a linear gradient extrapolation method, cubic three-dimensional samples were constructed from two-dimensional CT images. Image porosity (0.37) was found to be consistent with the estimate of porosity by water weight loss technique (0.36). Scaling of the pore volume (V_p) with the linear size (L), V ~ L^D provides the fractal dimensionalities of the pore volume (D = 2.74 ± 0.02) and grain volume (D = 2.90 ± 0.02) typical for sedimentary materials.