Advances in Computed Tomography for Geomaterials: GeoX 2010

Trends in CT-Scanning of Reservoir Rocks

Medical CT to Micro CT

S. Siddiqui — M. R. H. Sarker

Petroleum Engineering DepartmentTexas Tech UniversityBox 43111, 8^th and Canton AvenueLubbock, TX [e-mail]

ABSTRACT. Converted medical x-ray CT-scanners have been used since 1984 for obtaining important rock and rock-fluid properties in a non-destructive manner for core characterization and fluid flow visualization. Although medical CT-scanners have seen constant improvement in speed, the spatial resolution has not improved from the 350-450 µm range. Typical pore sizes of reservoir rocks vary from less than a micron to a few microns and therefore, the oil industry has been looking for alternatives such as micro and nano CT-scanners. Micro CT-scanners have been used successfully to extract information from cuttings-sized rock fragments and micro CT-based research can potentially eliminate the need for cutting cores. This paper presents a state-of-the-art review of micro CT-based petrophysical research and describes some the techniques used for building realistic pore network models and obtaining various petrophysical properties.

 

KEYWORDS: CT-scanning, micro CT, cuttings, core characterization, flow visualization, LBM

1. Introduction

Computerized Tomography (CT), introduced in 1972, is a non-destructive medical imaging technique that uses x-ray technology and mathematical reconstruction algorithms to view a cross-sectional slice of an ...