THEORETICAL AND EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF TIME DOMAIN-INDUCED POLARIZATION IN WATER-SATURATED SANDS

Abstract

A theoretical model of spectral-induced polarization (IP) of sand is presented. In the proposed model, contacts of sand grains and intergrain solution-filled space are considered as electrical current passages of varying thickness, which differ in values of ion transport number. Ion-selective narrow passages are considered as active zones, large passages as passive. The proposed model describes spectral IP characteristics for the medium where the length of passive zones is much greater than the length of active ones. The model is called short narrow pores (SNP) model. The SNP model predicts a growth of IP time constant with increase of length of ion-selective zone. Both the time domain and frequency domain parameters are described. The parameters of Cole–Cole model corresponding to the SNP model were also found.The behaviour of model parameters is compared with experimental data obtained on natural and sieved sands using time domain technique. The natural sand spectra correspond neither to the simple SNP model nor simple Cole–Cole model with single time constant because the lengths of ion-selective zones vary, reflecting the grain-size distribution.The spectra of sieved sand compared with the theoretical SNP spectra reveal close correspondence between experimental data and theoretical parameters. For four sieved sands, both the theoretical and experimental data show that the time constant of the IP is proportional to the square of the average grain size.