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E Tutorials

Some of the important workflows used in this research project are presented in this appendix, hopefully
saving some time and preventing ’reinventing the wheel’ in ongoing future research projects. This is
not meant as a comprehensive manual, but it illustrates the process used in the Favignana calcarenite
research project.

E.1 Falling head experiment

The falling head experiment was designed to overcome problems with high permeability samples. As this
method does not use standard equipment, the workflow to design and execute the experiments is given
here. The required equipment includes:

• PVC tube just over a metre long, and with inner diameter approx. equal to the plug diameter.
• Depending on the amount of plugs, one or more inner bicycle tyres (approx. 10 cm per plug).
• Piece of PVC tube — little longer than the plugs — with a flow valve (see figure E.1).
• Water tank, big enough to prevent water to rise significantly during the tests.
• Laboratory stand to hold the tube.
• Paper ruler.
• Vacuum pump with a three way valve and a ’cork’ that fits in the tube.

Preparing the samples and set-up

1. The set-up of the experiment is shown in figure 3.3 (section 3.3.2).
2. Fix the paper ruler to the outside of the PVC tube with tape. The bottom of the ruler (the zero

line) should align with the bottom of the tube.
3. Attach the cork, the flow valve and the vacuum pump as shown in the schematic experiment set-up.
4. Place the tube with ruler in the stand, above a tank filled with ’enough’ distilled water, and connect

the cork on top.
5. In order to prepare the seal around samples, use the small piece of tube with the valve. The principle

is given in figure E.1, together with usage instructions.

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