Porosity measurement by comparison of air volumes

Philippe Leclaire (1) , Olga Umnova (1) , Kirill Horoshenkov (2) , Laurent Maillet (3)

1 Department of Engineering
2 Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
3 Department of Chemistry

A method for measuring the volume of a solid with arbitrary shape and the open porosity ͑volume fraction of the open pores͒ of air-saturated porous materials is proposed. The experimental principle is inspired from Beranek's method based on the application of the ideal gas law to the gas surrounding the solid. The originality of the proposed method lies in the comparison of the volume of a measurement chamber containing the sample with that of an empty reference chamber. During a measurement, the reduction of volume in the measurement chamber due to the introduction of the solid is compensated by increasing the volume of a piston connected to the measurement chamber. An important aspect of this experimental system is that the influence of temperature can be considerably reduced as nearly the same variations of temperature apply simultaneously to the measurement and the reference chambers. A preliminary calibration experiment without sample in the measurement chamber is carried out in order to equalize the volumes of the two chambers. The calibration can be performed once and for all, thus minimizing the number of operations in the measurement process. The porosities of several materials are measured and compared to reference values. The precision and possible future improvements are discussed.

Domaines: Science des matériaux [cond-mat.mtrl-sci]; Matériaux

Philippe Leclaire, Olga Umnova, Kirill Horoshenkov, Laurent Maillet. Porosity measurement by comparison of air volumes. Review of Scientific Instruments, 2003, 74 (3), pp.1366. ⟨10.1063/1.1542666⟩. ⟨hal-01326049⟩