Evaluation of permeable pore sizes of macroporous materials using a modified gas permeation method

Abstract

The sizes of permeable pores in porous materials, assuming three-dimensional reticulation, were evaluated using a modified gas permeation method for two important purposes: to develop a technique for characterizing pores in macroporous materials, and to selectively estimate the dimensions of permeable pores influencing fluid flow. The range of pore sizes measured using this method was between 30 and 80 mu m, with a mean value of about 50 mu m. The validity of using a modified gas permeation method was justified by the fact that the fluid flow always followed the Hagen-Poiseuille's law. Moreover, the distribution of pore sizes determined by this method was smaller than that determined by the image analysis method.