Estimation of carbonates permeability using numerical image processing

Carbonate rocks heterogeneity and anisotropy has always caused an uncertainty in the permeability estimation methods. In many cases the actual permeability of this rock type cannot be exactly specified just by performing experiment. In the present study a new numerical method has been used in analyzing the results of image processing on scanning electron microscope (SEM) images. Here, estimation of permeability has been presented by developing a modification on effective medium theory in consideration the phenomenon of dead end pores. Random numbers play a prominent role in this simulation corresponded on the randomized nature of carbonate fabrics. Mont Carlo simulation has led to presenting a distribution function of medium permeability. Results of simulation has been confirmed by two literature data which had been obtained by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods on a three dimension scanned samples.