Continuum percolation of porous media via random packing of overlapping cube-like particles

The pore configuration in porous medium is assumed to be the randomly distributed cube-like particles which can overlap each other in the periodic cubic domain, and the impact of particle characteristics on the percolation property of these cube-like particle packing systems is analyzed. Firstly, by combining the percolation models and finite-size scaling analysis, three numerical parameters (i.e., percolation transition width Delta L, local percolation threshold psi(c)(L), and correlation length exponent nu) for the cube-like particle systems with shape parameter s in [1.0, +infinity] are derived successively. Then, based on the relation between the percolation threshold psi(c) in infinite space and the local percolation threshold psi(c)(L), the corresponding psi(c) with s in [1.0, +infinity] are further determined. It is shown from the study that the characteristics of cube-like particles have significant influence on the global percolation threshold psi(c) of the particle packing systems. As the parameter s increases from 1.0 to +infinity, the percolation threshold psi(c) will go down persistently. When the surface of cube-like particles is cubical and spherical, respectively, the minimum and maximum thresholds psi(c,min )and psi(c,)(max) are obtained. (C) 2018 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The Chinese Society of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics.