FRACTAL CHARACTERIZATION ON FRACTURE VOLUME IN COAL BASED ON CT SCANNING: PRINCIPLE, METHODOLOGY, AND IMPLICATION

This paper proposes a method for the fractal characterization on fracture volume in coal based on CT scanning experiment, and derives the relation among the fractal dimension D, fracture volume and length scale. The principle and methodology were deduced in detail, and the rationality was examined by the classical Mandelbrot fractal equation on fractal structure in porous media. The results demonstrate fracture volume is the comprehensive embodiment of the height, length, and aperture of fracture. Consequently, the estimated fractal dimension D can more comprehensively symbolize the fractal characteristic on fracture volume of coal in three-dimensional space than the fractal dimension for fracture number. Therefore, it is worth to be further studied on establishing the analytical equation for fluids transport characteristic parameters in porous media based on D.