Numerical analyses of effective dielectric constant of multiphase microporous media

This paper provides a full numerical tool set for modeling and predicting an effective apparent dielectric constant of multiphase microporous media, which includes a multiparameter random generation-growth algorithm for generating microstructures of multiphase porous media and a lattice Boltzmann solver for the electric potential transport equations through porous structures. After being validated by the theoretical solutions for simple geometries, the present methods are used to investigate the phase distribution effects on the effective dielectric constant of multiphase microporous media, including the effects of particle size, structure anisotropy, and phase aggregation caused by wetting characteristics between phases for multiphase cases. The resultant predictions at the end agree well with the existing experimental data for both two-phase and three-phase cases. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.