ERSC 2P16 Lecture Notes - Lecture 8: Granular Material, Packing Density
2 Aug 2015
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Document Summary
Both are important properties that are related to fluids in sediment and sedimentary rocks. Most aquifers are in sediment or sedimentary rocks. Porosity: the volume of void space (available to contain fluid or air) in a sediment or sedimentary rock. Permeability: related to how easily a fluid will pass through any granular material: porosity (p): the proportion of any material that is void space, expressed as a percentage of the total volume of material. Where vp is the total volume of pore space and vt is the total volume of rock or sediment. In practice, porosity is commonly based on measurement of the total grain volume of a granular material: Where vg is the total volume of grains within the total volume of rock or sediment. Porosity varies from 0% to 70% in natural sediments but exceeds 70% for freshly deposited mud. Several factors control porosity: packing density: the arrangement of the particles in the deposit.
