Representative elementary volume of a region of interest of a heterogeneous carbonate rock using X-Ray computed microtomography and numerical simulation

Abstract

Characterization of carbonate rocks presents several challenges regarding the acquisition of petrophysical parameters and the understanding of fluid-flow dynamics in their pore system. To face these challenges, techniques such as X-ray microtomography, three-dimensional digital model reconstruction and fluid-flow numerical simulations have been continuously developed and improved. This study analyzes the representative elementary volume (REV) of a region of interest (ROI) of a highly heterogeneous stromatolite sample. Porosity and permeability are estimated for different subvolumes of the sample based on digital petrophysics. All necessary steps for reconstruction and segmentation of the complex pore system of the sample, as well as numerical simulations of fluid flow, are presented and discussed. The workflow is promising for reservoir evaluation because it can be applied to any type of carbonate rock.