DETERMINATION OF THE FRACTAL DIMENSIONS OF COAL FILTER CAKES AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO CAKE PERMEABILITY

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Abstract
The permeabilities of various fine coal filter cakes were related to cake microstructure through micrographically measured fractal dimensions. Two other porous systems, consolidated glass beads and CaCO3 crystal filter cake, were also analyzed for comparison. A variety of coal mesh sizes were examined spanning a reasonable range of permeability The fractal dimension was determined using the dilation function of the image analyzer. This fractal dimension was then related to the Kozeny parameter, K″, using experimentally measured porosity and permeability, and micrographically measured specific surface. Finally, with K″ as a unique function of fractal dimension, permeabilities were estimated using the Carman-Kozeny equation. Calculated values were in good agreement with experimentally determined values considering the simplicity and direct nature of the approach.