Percolation

In physics, chemistry and materials science, percolation concerns the movement and filtering of fluids through porous materials. Examples include the movement of solvents through filter paper (chromatography) and the movement of petroleum through fractured rock. Electrical analogs include the flow of electricity through random resistor networks. During the last three decades, percolation theory, an extensive mathematical model of percolation, has brought new understanding and techniques to a broad range of topics in physics, materials science as well as geography.

Percolation typically exhibits universality. Combinatorics is commonly employed to study percolation thresholds.

Applications include coffee percolation, where the solvent is water, the permeable substance is the coffee grounds, and the soluble constituents are the chemical compounds that give coffee its color, taste, and aroma.

See also

• Conductance (graph)
• Self-organization
• Self-organized criticality
• Percolation threshold
• Groundwater recharge

References

• Harry Kesten, What is percolation? Notices of the AMS, May 2006.
• Muhammad Sahimi. Applications of Percolation Theory. Taylor & Francis, 1994. ISBN 0-7484-0075-3 (cloth), ISBN 0-7484-0076-1 (paper)
• Geoffrey Grimmett. Percolation (2. ed). Springer Verlag, 1999.
• Template:D.Stauffer and A.Aharony Introduction to Percolation Theory

External links

• Visual simulation of bond percolation. This application shows 38x38 bond percolation square lattice. The percolation threshold is reached when the slider position corresponds to p = 0.5

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