High-resolution X-ray computed tomography images of Bentheim sandstone under elevated stress

A dry sample of Bentheim (or Bentheimer) sandstone was characterized using 3D X-Ray microscopy (Versa XRM-500, XRadia-Zeiss) at three different confining pressures of 1 MPa, 20 MPa, and 30 MPa and two voxel sizes of (1.5854 µm)³ and (3.3452 µm)³. The 5-mm-diameter, 20-mm-long dry sample was placed inside a custom-made pressure sell (Lebedev et al, 2017). The sample was subjected to confining pressure of 20 MPa and 3200 radiographs were acquired, then confining pressure was reduced to 1MPa and the sample was imaged again, finally, the sample was pressurized up to 30MPa and the final image set was taken. Image reconstruction was done using internal software (XRadia-Zeiss).