Measurement of local porosities and dielectric dispersion for a water‐saturated porous medium

The frequency‐dependent conductivity and dielectric constant of a salt‐water‐saturated porous glass specimen have been measured. The measurements cover the full frequency range of the Maxwell–Wagner dispersion. The experimental results have been compared with the recently introduced local porosity theory and with previous theories. For the purpose of comparing with the local porosity theory experimental measurements of local porosity distributions from digitized pore space images are presented. These experimental porosity distributions are then used for a first experimental test of local porosity theory. The comparison with previous theoretical expressions for the frequency‐dependent effective dielectric function shows that local porosity theory constitutes a significant improvement in the quantitative agreement.