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The application of digital rock models to petrography and fluid flow simulations in reservoir sandstones

Monsees, Alexander C.; Subhedar, Amol; Busch, Benjamin ORCID iD icon; Nestler, Britta; Hilgers, Christoph ORCID iD icon

Abstract (englisch):

Standard methods to characterize reservoir sandstone in the petroleum industry include microscopy-based petrography, as well as petrophysical measurements on core plugs. However, thin-section petrography cannot resolve 3D structures, and in case the sample contains water-soluble minerals two-phase flow measurements through a core plug will deliver inherently skewed results. X-ray micro-computed tomography (µCT) presents an opportunity to derive the internal structure of reservoir sandstones for digital fluid flow simulations while simultaneously assessing mineral distribution in 3D based on mineral densities. The results show an improved match between µCT porosity and petrophysical porosity compared to thin-section based porosity. Also, petrography derived from µCT densities shows an acceptable first order fit for the main petrographic categories quantified from thin-sections. Due to the high computational demand of µCT-based fluid flow simulations in heterogeneous sandstone samples, a tradeoff between resolution, representative volume, and cost is imperative. A good understanding of the encountered petrophysical and petrographic parameters is needed to adjust these variables on a case-by-case basis. ... mehr


Zugehörige Institution(en) am KIT Institut für Angewandte Materialien – Computational Materials Science (IAM-CMS)
Institut für Angewandte Geowissenschaften (AGW)
KIT-Zentrum Klima und Umwelt (ZKU)
Publikationstyp Vortrag
Publikationsjahr 2020
Sprache Englisch
Identifikator KITopen-ID: 1000126741
Veranstaltung Student Technical Congress - German Section (STC 2020), Online, 04.11.2020 – 06.11.2020
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