Frequency-dependent streaming potential of Ottawa sand

Abstract

[1] The scientific literature is almost devoid of frequency-dependent electrokinetic measurements on geological materials. An apparatus that allows the measurement of the streaming potential coupling coefficient of unconsolidated and disaggregated materials such as sands, gravels, and soils has been designed, constructed, and tested. The apparatus, which uses an electromagnetic drive, operates in the range 1 Hz to 1 kHz and has a 25.4 mm diameter sample chamber for samples up to 150 mm long. We have made streaming potential coupling coefficient measurements on samples of Ottawa sand as a function of frequency. The results have been analyzed using critically and variably damped second-order vibrational mechanics models as well as the theoretical models of Packard for capillary tubes and Pride for porous media. The best fit was provided by an underdamped second-order model with a damping factor of 0.8561 (R 2 = 0.993). Transition frequencies were derived from the two vibrational models and the Pride model either by fitting the model to the data or directly from the model, giving 230, 273, and 256.58 Hz, respectively. These values are in good agreement with the transition frequency expected for a sand with an independently obtained effective pore radius of 6.76 × 10 −5 m from laser diffraction grain size measurements. The Packard model also agrees extremely well with the experimental data (R 2 = 0.987) directly providing a value of the equivalent capillary radius of 6.75 × 10 −5 m that coincides within experimental errors with the independently obtained effective pore radius measurements.

Frequency-Dependent Streaming Potential of Porous Media—Part 2: Experimental Measurement of Unconsolidated Materials

“…However, a recent study showed that the simplification is incorrect [11]. The correct simplification, which is consistent with the simplified model solution shown in their Figure 4 [9] (T. Ishido, pers.…”

“…Its disadvantage is that a high-quality harmonic driving pressure is required to create the time-varying flow. Various authors have shown that measurements on a range of materials are possible in the range 1 Hz to 600 Hz [6][7][8][9][10], but before the recent paper of Tardif et al [11] only one measurement had been made on a geological material [10].…”

Measurements of the Relationship Between Microstructure, pH, and the Streaming and Zeta Potentials of Sandstones

“…Glover et al (2006) collated a database of C sp and ζ determinations as a function of salinity, which is reproduced in Fig. 1 with supplementary data from AC measurements on Ottawa sand (Tardif et al 2011;Glover et al 2012a), and omitting carbonate samples. Four aspects of the data are worth mentioning explicitly.…”

“…(Sprunt et al 1994;Pozzi 1995a, 1997;Li et al 1995;Jiang et al 1998;Pengra et al 1999); [2] sandstone with NaCl as a function of permeability/microstructure (pH5) (Jouniaux and Pozzi 1995b); [3] St. Bees, Stainton, and Fontainebleau sandstones with NaCl (Jaafar et al 2009;Vinogradov et al 2010); [4] sandstone with KCl (Alkafeef and Alajmi 2007); [5] sand with NaCl (Guichet et al 2003;Block and Harris 2006);[6] granite with NaCl (Morgan et al (1989)); [7] glass with NaCl (Pengra et al 1999;Block and Harris 2006);[8] zeolitized tuffs with NaCl (Revil et al 2002);[9] basalt with NaCl (Revil et al 2003 (Tardif et al 2011;Glover et al 2012a). b [1] Quartz with NaCl (Pride and Morgan (1991)); [2] silica with NaCl (Gaudin and Fuerstenau 1955;Li and Bruyn 1966;Kirby and Hasselbrink 2004);[3] glass beads with NaCl (Bolève et al 2007);[4] St.…”

A review on electrokinetically induced seismo-electrics, electro-seismics, and seismo-magnetics for Earth sciences

“…So the frequency dependence of the streaming potential coefficient has been studied (Packard, 1953;Cooke, 1955;Groves and Sears, 1975;Sears and Groves, 1978;Chandler, 1981;Reppert et al, 2001;Schoemaker et al, 2007Schoemaker et al, , 2008 mainly on synthetic samples, and recently on sand (Tardif et al, 2011), and on unconsolidated materials (Glover et al, 2012). In 1953 Packard (1953) proposed a model for the frequency-dependent streaming potential coefficient for capillary tubes, assuming that the Debye length is negligible compared to the capillary radius, based on the Navier-Stokes equation:…”