Benchmarking PET for geoscientific applications: 3D quantitative diffusion coefficient determination in clay rock

The 3D diagonal anisotropic effective diffusion coefficient of Na+, Deff=(Dxx, Dyy, Dzz), was quantified in a clay material in one single experiment/simulation. That is possible due to the combination of the non-invasive observation of Na+ diffusion in Opalinus clay by means of GeoPET method (PET: positron emission tomography) followed by quantitative 3D+t data evaluation by means of the finite element numerical modelling (FEM). The extracted anisotropic effective diffusion coefficient parallel (||) and normal (⊥) to the bedding of the clay rock, Deff=(D||, D⊥, D||) are comparable to those obtained on earlier experimental studies in the same clay material but with different methods. We consider this study as benchmark for the long-standing development of our GeoPET method, that explicitly includes a resolute and physics based attenuation and Compton scatter correction algorithm (Kulenkampff, J., M. Gründig, A. Zakhnini and J. Lippmann-Pipke (2016). "Geoscientific process monitoring with positron emission tomography (GeoPET)." Solid Earth 7: 1217-1231). We suggest GeoPET based fluid flow transport visualization combined with computer based process simulation henceforth as a qualified way for the quantification of three-dimensional, effective transport parameters in geosciences.