Application of percolation theory to microtomography of structured media: Percolation threshold, critical exponents, and upscaling

Percolation theory provides a tool for linking microstructure and macroscopic material properties. In this paper, percolation theory is applied to the analysis of microtomographic images for the purpose of deriving scaling laws for upscaling of properties. We have tested the acquisition of quantities such as percolation threshold, crossover length, fractal dimension, and critical exponent of correlation length from microtomography. By inflating or deflating the target phase and percolation analysis, we can get a critical model and an estimation of the percolation threshold. The crossover length is determined from the critical model by numerical simulation. The fractal dimension can be obtained either from the critical model or from the relative size distribution of clusters. Local probabilities of percolation are used to extract the critical exponent of the correlation length. For near-isotropic samples such as sandstone and bread, the approach works very well. For strongly anisotropic samples, such as highly deformed rock (mylonite) and a tree branch, the percolation threshold and fractal dimension can be assessed with accuracy. However, the uncertainty of the correlation length makes it difficult to accurately extract its critical exponents. Therefore, this aspect of percolation theory cannot be reliably used for upscaling properties of strongly anisotropic media. Other methods of upscaling have to be used for such media.