[63.2.1.1] The low-frequency dielectric response
of a porous medium is influenced by the randomness
in its pore-space geometry.
[63.2.1.2] Given the geometric description
of the pore space developed in the last section,
two questions arise:
[63.2.1.3] One is how the geometrical information encapsuled
in and
expresses itself
in the effective complex dielectric constant
,
where
is the frequency.
[63.2.1.4] This will be walled the direct problem.
[63.2.1.5] The inverse problem is the question
what geometric information can be obtained
from a measurement of the frequency-dependent dielectric constant.
[63.2.2.1] To study these two questions,
standard effective-medium theory is an appropraite tool
for a first approximate investigation.
[63.2.2.2] Consider again the subdivision of the porous medium
into cells of length .
[63.2.2.3] Let
and
be the complex frequency-dependent
dielectric constants of the constituent materials
where the index
stands for the rock matrix
and the index
stands for water (or brine)
filling the pore space.
[63.2.2.4] Because alle cells are statistically independent,
standard one-cell effective-medium theory[29]
can be employed to write a self-consistency equation
for the effective dielectric consant
of the medium,
which reads
![]() |
(3.1) |
[page 64, §0]
[64.1.0.1] Here is the local effective dielectric constant,
which depends on the constituent materials
and
and the local geometry
.
[64.1.0.2] The integration is performed over the space
of all possible local geometries
,
and the probability measure
on
represents a complete description
of the statistical pore-space geometry.
[64.1.1.1] It was discussed in Section II
that a complete geometric description such as is not known,
and that in the present paper the local porosity distribution
and the local percolation probability
will be used as approximate descriptions.
[64.1.1.2] This implies that the local effective dielectric constant
must be replaced simultaneously
by an approximate effective local dielectric constant
.
[64.1.1.3] It depends on the local porosity
as the only geometrical quantity.
[64.1.1.4] As a consequence of the basic hypothesis
of local simplicity discussed above,
can later be approximated by simple geometric models
of the pore space.
[64.1.1.5] Note that the dependence on
and
as well as the index “
” have been suppressed to shorten the notation.
[64.1.1.6] With these simplifications one arrives at the simpler equations
![]() |
(3.2) |
[64.1.1.7] Here and
are the local effective dielectric constants.
[64.1.1.8] The index
stands for conducting (percolating)
local geometries and the index
for blocking (nonpercolating) cells.
[64.1.2.1] Equation (3.2) represents the starting point
for the present investigation, and it is appropriate
to discuss briefly its content.
[64.1.2.2] Mathematically, eq. (3.2) is a complicated
integral equation involving five different functions.
[64.1.2.3] The average local dielectric properties ,
are assumed to be known.
[64.1.2.4] According to the hypothesis of local simplicity,
their precise form is not sensitive
to geometric properties other than porosity,
and thus they will in practice be determined
from very simple geometrical models
of the local pore space.
[64.1.2.5] The important assumptions implicit in using equation (3.2) are twofold:
[64.1.2.6] The first is that local geometries are uncorrelated.
[64.1.2.7] The second says that the important geometric features
giving rise to dielectric dispersion can be described
using local porosity distributions
and local percolation probabilities.
[64.1.2.8] With
and
known,
eq. (3.2) can be written as
.
[64.1.2.9] The direct problem is to determine
given
and
as geometrical input.
[64.1.2.10] The inverse problems are to calculate
from
and
or to find
given
and
.
[64.1.3.1] Before embarking on the discussion of these problems, some notation and conventions must be established for the subsequent treatment.