Magnetic Resonance Imaging for Pore Water Mapping in Soils
Publication: Geo-Congress 2023
ABSTRACT
This paper reviews the application of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for monitoring pore water in different porous media. The physics of MRI and different imaging techniques are first presented in detail, and studies focusing on quantifying water and water flow in porous media are reviewed. Then, we present the results of MRI scans for a poorly graded sand (badger sand), scanned utilizing a 9.4 Tesla MRI scanner. The specimen was saturated with deionized (DI) water in a PVC container, then placed inside the magnetic resonance (MR) scanner for fast low angle shot (FLASH) sequence imaging. The collected 2D images were then processed, and a 3D tomography for the pore water distribution was reconstructed. The volumetric water content (wc) for the badger sand specimen was then calculated by three-dimensionally segmenting of the pore water component acquired using the MRI. The calculated water content agreed with the water content used to prepare the specimens, validating the adopted scanning parameters and methodology. Such results pave the way for more advanced analysis of pore water in soils under steady state or varying water flow.
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Geo-Congress 2023
Pages: 153 - 162
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Published online: Mar 23, 2023
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