Induced polarization measurements are often made to detect contaminating hydrocarbons in soils. This excellent paper presents a method for modelling the effect of liquid hydrocarbon in sediment pore space on membrane polarization, and the consequent effect on frequency-dependent induced polarization measurements. An analytical model of the pore fluids as a sequence of electrically polarized cylinders of different lengths and radii is extended by adding an additional cylinder to represent the contaminating hydrocarbons. The results predict that conductivity magnitude and conductivity phase generally decrease with hydrocarbon saturation. The model suggests that the explanation for an observed slight increase in complex conductivity at intermediate hydrocarbon concentrations may be that the potential at the surface of non-wetting hydrocarbon droplets is larger than that at the pore wall.
Ludger Mintrop Award 2018 presented to Matthias Bücker, Geophysics Bonn Ludger Mintrop Award 2018 presented to Matthias Bücker, Geophysics Bonn
Matthias Bücker and co-authors Adrian Flores Orozco, Andreas Hördt and Andreas Kemna receive the Ludger Mintrop Award 2018 for their paper ‘An analytical membrane-polarization model to predict the complex conductivity signature of immiscible liquid hydrocarbon contaminants,’ published in Near Surface Geophysics, Volume 15, issue 6, December 2017, pp 547 - 562.