A method for measurement of effective porosity in porous rock and soil media based on radon diffusion

For nonradioactive geotechnical media, the relationship between effective porosity and known radon concentration varying in sealed chambers was found out theoretically, experimentally as well, based on radon diffusion in the homogeneously porous medium. The radon concentration variation in upper sealed chamber would be linearly affected by the temperature. Furthermore, the effective porosities of certain porous medium models could be calculated by experimental radon concentration with the radon diffusion method. It can be seen that it is feasible to calculate the effective porosity of porous media with no gas pressure difference by the radon diffusion method, by which the primary porosity of geotechnical media will not be destroyed.