TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessing XMT-Measurement Variability of Air-Water Interfacial Areas in Natural Porous Media
AU - Araujo, Juliana B.
AU - Brusseau, Mark L.
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Dr. Mark Rivers (APS) for his assistance in conducting the imaging. Also, we thank Dr. Hua Zhong and Asma El Ouni (UA Contaminant Transport Lab). Additional thanks to Dr. Markus Tuller (the University of Arizona) and Dr. Ramaprasad Kulkarni (the University of Arizona) for assistance with the segmentation algorithm. Lastly, we thank the editors and reviewers for their constructive comments. This research was supported by the NIEHS Superfund Research Program (Grant P42 ES 04940). This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract DE‐AC02‐06CH11357. We acknowledge the support of GeoSoilEnviroCARS (Sector 13), which is supported by the National Science Foundation‐Earth Sciences (EAR‐1128799), and the Department of Energy Geosciences (DE‐FG02‐94ER14466). The visualization resources were made available through the TRIF‐SEOS grant initiative (AZ). Data availability statement: The data reported in the figures are freely accessible in the University of Arizona permanent repository operated under FAIR guidelines. The data may be used for noncommercial purposes, with complete citation to the original authors. https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/634951 is the relevant access link.
Funding Information:
The authors would like to thank Dr. Mark Rivers (APS) for his assistance in conducting the imaging. Also, we thank Dr. Hua Zhong and Asma El Ouni (UA Contaminant Transport Lab). Additional thanks to Dr. Markus Tuller (the University of Arizona) and Dr. Ramaprasad Kulkarni (the University of Arizona) for assistance with the segmentation algorithm. Lastly, we thank the editors and reviewers for their constructive comments. This research was supported by the NIEHS Superfund Research Program (Grant P42 ES 04940). This research used resources of the Advanced Photon Source, a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science user facility operated for the DOE Office of Science by Argonne National Laboratory under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357. We acknowledge the support of GeoSoilEnviroCARS (Sector 13), which is supported by the National Science Foundation-Earth Sciences (EAR-1128799), and the Department of Energy Geosciences (DE-FG02-94ER14466). The visualization resources were made available through the TRIF-SEOS grant initiative (AZ). Data availability statement: The data reported in the figures are freely accessible in the University of Arizona permanent repository operated under FAIR guidelines. The data may be used for noncommercial purposes, with complete citation to the original authors. https://repository.arizona.edu/handle/10150/634951 is the relevant access link.
Publisher Copyright:
©2019. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2020/1/1
Y1 - 2020/1/1
N2 - This study investigates the accuracy and reproducibility of air-water interfacial areas measured with high-resolution synchrotron X-ray microtomography (XMT). Columns packed with one of two relatively coarse-grained monodisperse granular media, glass beads or a well-sorted quartz sand, were imaged over several years, encompassing changes in acquisition equipment, improved image quality, and enhancements to image acquisition and to processing software. For the glass beads, the specific solid surface area (SSSA-XMT) of 31.6 ± 1 cm−1 determined from direct analysis of the segmented solid-phase image data is statistically identical to the independently calculated geometric smooth-sphere specific solid surface area (GSSA, 32 ± 1 cm−1) and to the measured SSSA (28 ± 3 cm−1) obtained with the N2-Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller method. The maximum specific air-water interfacial area (Amax) is 27.4 (±2) cm−1, which compares very well to the SSSA-XMT, GSSA, and SSSA-N2-Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller values. For the sand, the SSSA-XMT (111 ± 2 cm−1) and GSSA (113 ± 1 cm−1) are similar. The mean Amax is 96 ± 5 cm−1, which compares well to both the SSSA and the GSSA values. The XMT-SSSA values deviated from the GSSA values by 7–16% for the first four experiments but were essentially identical for the later experiments. This indicates that enhancements in image acquisition and processing improved data accuracy. The Amax values ranged from 74 cm−1 to 101 cm−1, with a coefficient of variation (COV) of 9%. The maximum capillary interfacial area ranged from 12 cm−1 to 19 cm−1, for a COV of 10%. The COVs for both decreased to 5–6% for the latter five experiments. These results demonstrate that XMT imaging provides accurate and reproducible measurements of total and capillary interfacial areas.
AB - This study investigates the accuracy and reproducibility of air-water interfacial areas measured with high-resolution synchrotron X-ray microtomography (XMT). Columns packed with one of two relatively coarse-grained monodisperse granular media, glass beads or a well-sorted quartz sand, were imaged over several years, encompassing changes in acquisition equipment, improved image quality, and enhancements to image acquisition and to processing software. For the glass beads, the specific solid surface area (SSSA-XMT) of 31.6 ± 1 cm−1 determined from direct analysis of the segmented solid-phase image data is statistically identical to the independently calculated geometric smooth-sphere specific solid surface area (GSSA, 32 ± 1 cm−1) and to the measured SSSA (28 ± 3 cm−1) obtained with the N2-Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller method. The maximum specific air-water interfacial area (Amax) is 27.4 (±2) cm−1, which compares very well to the SSSA-XMT, GSSA, and SSSA-N2-Brunauer, Emmett, and Teller values. For the sand, the SSSA-XMT (111 ± 2 cm−1) and GSSA (113 ± 1 cm−1) are similar. The mean Amax is 96 ± 5 cm−1, which compares well to both the SSSA and the GSSA values. The XMT-SSSA values deviated from the GSSA values by 7–16% for the first four experiments but were essentially identical for the later experiments. This indicates that enhancements in image acquisition and processing improved data accuracy. The Amax values ranged from 74 cm−1 to 101 cm−1, with a coefficient of variation (COV) of 9%. The maximum capillary interfacial area ranged from 12 cm−1 to 19 cm−1, for a COV of 10%. The COVs for both decreased to 5–6% for the latter five experiments. These results demonstrate that XMT imaging provides accurate and reproducible measurements of total and capillary interfacial areas.
KW - X-ray microtomography
KW - air-water
KW - capillary
KW - image analysis
KW - image processing
KW - interfacial area
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85078698379&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85078698379&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1029/2019WR025470
DO - 10.1029/2019WR025470
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85078698379
VL - 56
JO - Water Resources Research
JF - Water Resources Research
SN - 0043-1397
IS - 1
M1 - e2019WR025470
ER -