Systems and methods for improving direct numerical simulation of material properties from rock samples and determining uncertainty in the material properties

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing program instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to determine, from a sample of a material, a representative elementary volume (REV) of the material based on one or more material properties, by performing a plurality of operations comprising:

• defining a plurality of test volume sizes, each corresponding to a number of voxels;
• determining, for each of the plurality of test volume sizes, a difference value of a material property between sample volumes of one or more pairs of adjacent sample volumes within a three-dimensional (3D) digital volume representative of a material sample, each sample volume having the number of voxels associated with that test volume size;
• and
• identifying the REV for the 3D digital volume from the difference values for determined at each of the plurality of test volume sizes.

A system for analyzing material samples, the system comprising:

• a scanner configured to produce a three dimensional (3D) digital volume, wherein the 3D digital volume is a representation of a material sample;
• and
• a computing device coupled to the scanner and comprising:
• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more memory devices, coupled to the one or more processors, storing program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to determine, from a sample of a material, a representative elementary volume (REV) of the material based on one or more material properties, by performing a plurality of operations comprising:
• defining a plurality of test volume sizes, each corresponding to a number of voxels;
• determining, for each of the plurality of test volume sizes, a difference value of a material property between sample volumes of one or more pairs of adjacent sample volumes within a three-dimensional (3D) digital volume representative of a material sample, each sample volume having the number of voxels associated with that test volume size;
• and
• identifying the REV for the 3D digital volume from the difference values for determined at each of the plurality of test volume sizes.