Simulation of mercury porosimetry using MRI images of porous media

Models of the pore structure of pellets taken from a batch of sol-gel silica spheres were constructed from magnetic resonance images of the macroscopic (~0.04-1 mm), spatial distribution of spin d., and spin-spin relaxation time within the material. Simulations of mercury porosimetry on these models gave rise to good predictions for the point of deviation of the intrusion and retraction curves, and the level of mercury entrapment, in agreement with those found by expt. This finding suggested that mercury intrusion and retraction within the pellets are detd. by the macroscopic structure of the material, as detected using MRI. [on SciFinder (R)]