Metal and gas ion species and their charge state distributions were measured for pulsed copper cathodic arcs in argon background gas in the presence of an axial magnetic field. It was found that changing the cathode position relative to anode and ion extraction system as well as increasing the gas pressure did not much affect the arc burning voltage and the related power dissipation. However, the burning voltage and power dissipation greatly increased as the magnetic field strength was increased. The fraction of metal ions and the mean ion charge state were reduced as the discharge length was increased. The observations can be explained by the combination of charge exchange collisions and electron impact ionization. They confirm that previously published data on characteristic material-dependent charge state distributions (e.g., Anders and Yushkov, J. Appl. Phys., Vol. 91, pp. 4824-4832, 2002) are not universal but valid for high vacuum conditions and the specifics of the applied magnetic fields.

Synchrotron-based X-ray microtomography (micro CT) at the Advanced Light Source (ALS) line 8.3.2 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory produces three-dimensional micron-scale-resolution digital images of the pore space of the reservoir rock along with the spacial distribution of the fluids. Pore-scale visualization of carbon dioxide flooding experiments performed at a reservoir pressure demonstrates that the injected gas fills some pores and pore clusters, and entirely bypasses the others. Using 3D digital images of the pore space as input data, the method of maximal inscribed spheres (MIS) predicts two-phase fluid distribution in capillary equilibrium. Verification against the tomography images shows a good agreement between the computed fluid distribution in the pores and the experimental data. The model-predicted capillary pressure curves and tomography-based porosimetry distributions compared favorably with the mercury injection data. Thus, micro CT in combination with modeling based on the MIS is a viable approach to study the pore-scale mechanisms of CO{sub 2} injection into an aquifer, as well as more general multi-phase flows.