Predicting the transport properties of sedimentary rocks from microgeometry

The author investigates through analysis and experiment how pore geometry, topology, and the physics and chemistry of mineral-fluid and fluid-fluid interactions affect the flow of fluids through consolidated/partially consolidated porous media. The approach is to measure fluid permeability and electrical conductivity of rock samples using single and multiple fluid phases that can be frozen in place (wetting and nonwetting) over a range of pore pressures. These experiments are analyzed in terms of the microphysics and microchemistry of the processes involved to provide a theoretical basis for the macroscopic constitutive relationships between fluid-flow and geophysical properties that the authors develop. The purpose of these experiments and their analyses is to advance the understanding of the mechanisms and factors that control fluid transport in porous media. This understanding is important in characterizing porous media properties and heterogeneities before simulating and monitoring the progress of complex flow processes at the field scale in permeable media.