oa Relationship Between Pore-scale Characteristics and Petrophysical Properties

Fluid flow properties of geomaterials are fundamentally controlled by the characteristics of the pore system and the interaction of different fluid phases occupying complex pore shapes. Both the geometric and topological characteristics of the pore system are important, and each separately influences the flow of fluids. Here, we report a study in which we use network models to assess fluid flow through pore systems extracted from coarse-grained and fine-grained materials. Arbitrary changes to the pore systems, which mimic the effects of compaction, diagenesis, and possibly deformation, produce changes in the multi-phase flow properties, but the roles of pore size and connectivity vary in different materials. Continuing studies aim to identify predictive relationships between readily-obtainable descriptors and the hard-to-determine flow characteristics.