Numerical Modeling of Complex Porous Media For Borehole Applications

TL;DR

This paper uses advanced numerical simulations to analyze how complex pore geometries affect NMR relaxometry and flow properties in porous media, aiding better interpretation of reservoir characteristics.

Contribution

It introduces a combined use of random-walk and Lattice-Boltzmann simulations to study pore geometry effects on NMR and flow in complex reservoirs.

Findings

Variable surface relaxivity impacts NMR signals significantly.

Simulations match experimental data well, validating the models.

Pore geometry complexity influences flow and relaxation behaviors.

Abstract

The diffusion/relaxation behavior of polarized spins of pore filling fluid, as often probed by NMR relaxometry, is widely used to extract information on the pore-geometry. Such information is further interpreted as an indicator of the key transport property of the formation in the oil industry. As the importance of reservoirs with complex pore geometry grows, so does the need for deeper understanding of how these properties are inter-related. Numerical modeling of relevant physical processes using a known pore geometry promises to be an effective tool in such endeavor. Using a suite of numerical techniques based on random-walk (RW) and Lattice-Boltzmann (LB) algorithms, we compare sandstone and carbonate pore geometries in their impact on NMR and flow properties. For NMR relaxometry, both laboratory measurement and simulation were done on the same source to address some of the long-standing issues in its borehole applications. Through a series of "numerical experiments" in which the interfacial relaxation properties of the pore matrix is varied systematically, we study the effect of a variable surface relaxivity while fully incorporating the complexity of the pore geometry. From combined RW and LB simulations, we also obtain diffusion-convection propagator and compare the result with experimental and network-simulation counterparts.