US 2019/0154597 A1 · System and Methods for Computing Physical Properties of Materials Using Imaging Data

Abstract

A method for computing physical properties of materials, such as two-phase and three-phase relative permeabilities through a porous material, is described. The method employs single or multi-scale digital images of a representative sample which capture one or multiple fractionations of a micro-structure size cascade at the respective, required imaging resolutions. At a high resolution, the method computes basic physical properties, such as absolute permeabilities with a numerical method such as computational fluid dynamics solving the Navier-Stokes equation, and capillary pressure with simulations solving Young-Laplace equation. Saturation states of multiple fluids are combined to derive capillary pressure relationships at low resolutions when necessary. Upscaled physical properties, such as upscaled relative permeabilities corresponding to the low resolutions, are subsequently computed using the composition of multiple permeable facies at corresponding upscaled saturations determined by upscaled capillary pressure, honoring upscaled governing laws of the physical property, such as Darcy's law.

Claims19

Dependent claims

A method for computing advanced physical properties of porous materials, comprising:

a) selecting a sample representative of a porous material;
b) determining whether single or multiple resolutions are needed to image the sample, the number of resolutions, the number and types of imaging devices needed, and whether an additional inter-resolution modeling is needed;
c) acquiring three-dimensional images of the sample at a first resolution;
d) constructing a first three-dimension digital representation of the sample at the first resolution using the three-dimension images of the first resolution, with an additional inter-resolution model when needed;
e) acquiring three-dimension images of a region of the sample at one or more additional resolutions, wherein the one or more additional resolutions are higher than the first resolution;
f) constructing one or more additional three-dimension digital representations of the region of the sample at the one or more additional resolutions using the three-dimension images of the one or more additional resolutions;
g) computing basic physical properties and advanced physical properties of the region using the one or more additional three-dimension digital representations;
h) upscaling to compute physical properties of the sample using the first three-dimension digital representation constructed at Step (d) and the basic and advanced physical properties computed at Step (g) using the one or more additional three-dimensional digital representation;
and
i) iterating Steps (d) through (h) when necessary.

7 more elements

A method for computing advanced physical properties of porous materials based on a type of representative elementary volume (REV) specifically with regard to an imaging approach, comprising:

a) selecting a sample representative of a porous material;
b) determining a field of view and a first resolution to be used to acquire images of the sample;
c) acquiring two-dimensional or three-dimensional images of the sample at the first resolution;
d) assessing whether all features are captured and determining whether additional imaging is needed;
e) if additional imaging is needed, acquiring additional two-dimensional or three-dimensional images of the sample at one or more additional resolutions until no additional imaging is needed;
and
f) if additional imaging is not needed, determining a type of the sample using the captured imaging data based on (1) whether locations of property regions are known, and (2) whether properties of each of the property regions can be characterized at the first resolution,
a. wherein the sample is a Type 1—homogeneous system, where the field of view contains multiple property regions where the locations of all property regions within the field of view are known, and where the properties for the multiple property regions can be representatively characterized at the first resolution,
b. wherein the sample is a Type 2—fractal heterogeneous porous system, where the field of view contains multiple property regions where the locations of all property regions within the field of view are known, and where the properties for at least some of the multiple property regions cannot be characterized at the first resolution but can be characterized at the one or more additional resolutions, and
c. wherein the sample is a Type 3—heterogeneous porous system with inter-resolution features, where the field of view contains multiple property regions where the locations of at least some of the multiple property regions within the field of view are not known but can be characterized with an inter-resolution model, and where the properties for at least some of the multiple property regions cannot be characterized at the first resolution but can be characterized at the one or more additional resolutions and the inter-resolution model.

7 more elements

A method for upscaling advanced physical properties, such as relative permeabilities, comprising:

(a) reconstructing 3D facies of a Type 3 sample (heterogeneous porous system with inter-resolution features) at a first lower resolution, with an appropriate inter-resolution model;
(b) determining facies permeabilities, capillary pressure and saturation states from one or more higher resolution 3D digital representations using a Navier-Stokes flow model;
(c) determining permeability contribution of the inter-resolution model;
(d) determining the influence of capillary pressure, and saturation states of the inter-resolution model;
(e) computing permeability, capillary pressure, and saturation states in the first lower resolution 3D facies reconstruction on all the facies with physical properties from the one or more higher resolutions and the inter-resolution model;
(f) iteratively validating computed permeability, capillary pressure, and saturation states when necessary;
and
(g) determining upscaled relative permeabilities from the first lower resolution 3D digital representation at each intermediate saturation state determined as in step (e) and permeabilities to the corresponding facies as in step (b) and (c).

5 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and Methods for Computing Physical Properties of Materials Using Imaging Data

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System and Methods for Computing Physical Properties of Materials Using Imaging Data

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims19