A method is presented that provides a mathematical description of capillary pressure curves and, probably, of differences in pore geometry of samples. The technique is based on the observation that the location and shape of a capillary pressure curve reflect characteristics of the pore structure of the sample.
It has been noted that the observed differences in shape and location of capillary pressure curves reflect some basic properties regarding the pore geometry of the samples. For example, according to basic concepts of capillarity, the following statements can be made regarding the location and shape of a capillary pressure curve.
The location of the curve with respect to the (Vb)pc and Pc axes is a measure of the interconnected pore volume and of the cross-sectional area of the pore first entered by mercury, respectively. The shape of the curve depends on the interconnection of the pores and the sorting of the pore sizes.
It has been the object of this study to use this information as a starting point in an attempt to find a unique mathematical description of the Pc - (Vb)Pc relations of different samples. It may be expected that parameters in such a relation can then be used to describe differences in pore geometry of these samples. For a practical description of the Pc - (Vb)Pc relation, however, it appears desirable to describe each curve (i.e., each sample) by a limited number of parameters so that the curves taken from all samples form a family, each member of which is uniquely determined by one single combination of values of all parameters.
