Micro-CT Characterization of Pore-size Distribution and Effects on Matrix Acidizing
Abstract
Carbonate rocks have complex heterogeneities that result from syn- and post-depositional stressors. These heterogeneities invariably affect the movement of fluid through the formation. When considering an acid treatment procedure, care must be taken to optimize the acid concentration and pumping schedule to encourage the formation of wormholes. Despite the abundance of carbonate formations (60% of conventional reserves), there is little consensus on the effect of physical formation properties related to acidizing efficiency. This study characterizes the pore-size distribution for different carbonate rocks and evaluates how the optimum pore-volume to breakthrough, PV bt, opt, and the optimal interstitial flux, vi, opt, are related to various physical properties of the rock.
The pore-size distributions evaluated in this study are constructed with micro-computer tomography (micro-CT) imaging, a non-invasive X-Ray imaging technique pioneered in the medical field. Micro-CT is improved over medical CT because it can scan at higher energies and higher resolution. In this work, resolution for scanned samples are from 5-8 µm/voxel and sample sizes are approximately 1cm^3. From the raw data, image processing is applied to distinguish pore space from the surrounding matrix. Object counter software is used to identify and measure individual pores, which can then be organized into a pore-size distribution. This study finds that the shape of the pore-size distribution is influenced by the type of carbonate rock, where the primary difference between scanned samples is their pore structure. Statistical parameters are calculated by fitting a lognormal distribution function to each sample’s pore-size distribution.
Subject
Pore-size distributionpore size distribution
matrix acidizing
wormhole
carbonate
acidizing
statistical
investigation
micro-ct
micro ct
computed tomography
reactive
dissolution
petrophysics
Citation
Dubetz, David Alexander (2016). Micro-CT Characterization of Pore-size Distribution and Effects on Matrix Acidizing. Master's thesis, Texas A & M University. Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /159111.