Tortuosity

A tortuous river (meander of Nowitna River, Alaska)

Tortuosity is widely used as a critical parameter to predict transport properties of porous media, such as rocks and soils. But unlike other standard microstructural properties, the concept of tortuosity is vague with multiple definitions and various evaluation methods introduced in different contexts. Hydraulic, electrical, diffusional, and thermal tortuosities are defined to describe different transport processes in porous media, while geometrical tortuosity is introduced to characterize the morphological property of porous microstructures.[1]

  1. ^ Fu, Jinlong; Thomas, Hywel R.; Li, Chenfeng (January 2021). "Tortuosity of porous media: Image analysis and physical simulation" (PDF). Earth-Science Reviews. 212: 103439. doi:10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103439. S2CID 229386129.