Morphological evaluation of heterogeneous oolitic limestone under pressure and fluid flow using X-ray microtomography

Pore-scale analysis of carbonate rock is of great relevance to the oil and gas industry owing to their vast application potentials. Although, efficient fluid flow at pore scale is often disrupted owing to the tight rock matrix and complex heterogeneity of limestone microstructures, factors such as p...

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Main Authors: Zhang, Y., Lebedev, Maxim, Al-Yaseri, A., Yu, H., Nwidee, L., Sarmadivaleh, Mohammad, Barifcani, Ahmed, Iglauer, Stefan
Format: Journal Article
Published: Elsevier 2018
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/66907
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author Zhang, Y.
Lebedev, Maxim
Al-Yaseri, A.
Yu, H.
Nwidee, L.
Sarmadivaleh, Mohammad
Barifcani, Ahmed
Iglauer, Stefan
author_facet Zhang, Y.
Lebedev, Maxim
Al-Yaseri, A.
Yu, H.
Nwidee, L.
Sarmadivaleh, Mohammad
Barifcani, Ahmed
Iglauer, Stefan
author_sort Zhang, Y.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Pore-scale analysis of carbonate rock is of great relevance to the oil and gas industry owing to their vast application potentials. Although, efficient fluid flow at pore scale is often disrupted owing to the tight rock matrix and complex heterogeneity of limestone microstructures, factors such as porosity, permeability and effective stress greatly impact the rock microstructures; as such an understanding of the effect of these variables is vital for various natural and engineered processes. In this study, the Savonnières limestone as a carbonate mineral was evaluated at micro scales using X-ray micro-computed tomography at high resolutions (3.43 μm and 1.25 μm voxel size) under different effective stress (0 MPa, 20 MPa) to ascertain limestone microstructure and gas permeability and porosity effect. The waterflooding (5 wt% NaCl) test was conducted using microCT in-situ scanning and nanoindentation test was also performed to evaluate microscale geomechanical heterogeneity of the rock. The nanoindentation test results showed that the nano/micro scale geomechanical properties are quite heterogeneous where the indentation modulus for the weak consolidated area was as low as 1 GPa. We observed that the fluid flow easily broke some less-consolidated areas (low indentation modulus) area, coupled with increase in porosity; and consistent with fines/particles migration and re-sedimentation were identified, although the effective stress showed only a minor effect on the rock microstructure.
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institution Curtin University Malaysia
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publishDate 2018
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-669072018-10-12T03:45:11Z Morphological evaluation of heterogeneous oolitic limestone under pressure and fluid flow using X-ray microtomography Zhang, Y. Lebedev, Maxim Al-Yaseri, A. Yu, H. Nwidee, L. Sarmadivaleh, Mohammad Barifcani, Ahmed Iglauer, Stefan Pore-scale analysis of carbonate rock is of great relevance to the oil and gas industry owing to their vast application potentials. Although, efficient fluid flow at pore scale is often disrupted owing to the tight rock matrix and complex heterogeneity of limestone microstructures, factors such as porosity, permeability and effective stress greatly impact the rock microstructures; as such an understanding of the effect of these variables is vital for various natural and engineered processes. In this study, the Savonnières limestone as a carbonate mineral was evaluated at micro scales using X-ray micro-computed tomography at high resolutions (3.43 μm and 1.25 μm voxel size) under different effective stress (0 MPa, 20 MPa) to ascertain limestone microstructure and gas permeability and porosity effect. The waterflooding (5 wt% NaCl) test was conducted using microCT in-situ scanning and nanoindentation test was also performed to evaluate microscale geomechanical heterogeneity of the rock. The nanoindentation test results showed that the nano/micro scale geomechanical properties are quite heterogeneous where the indentation modulus for the weak consolidated area was as low as 1 GPa. We observed that the fluid flow easily broke some less-consolidated areas (low indentation modulus) area, coupled with increase in porosity; and consistent with fines/particles migration and re-sedimentation were identified, although the effective stress showed only a minor effect on the rock microstructure. 2018 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/66907 10.1016/j.jappgeo.2018.01.026 Elsevier restricted
spellingShingle Zhang, Y.
Lebedev, Maxim
Al-Yaseri, A.
Yu, H.
Nwidee, L.
Sarmadivaleh, Mohammad
Barifcani, Ahmed
Iglauer, Stefan
Morphological evaluation of heterogeneous oolitic limestone under pressure and fluid flow using X-ray microtomography
title Morphological evaluation of heterogeneous oolitic limestone under pressure and fluid flow using X-ray microtomography
title_full Morphological evaluation of heterogeneous oolitic limestone under pressure and fluid flow using X-ray microtomography
title_fullStr Morphological evaluation of heterogeneous oolitic limestone under pressure and fluid flow using X-ray microtomography
title_full_unstemmed Morphological evaluation of heterogeneous oolitic limestone under pressure and fluid flow using X-ray microtomography
title_short Morphological evaluation of heterogeneous oolitic limestone under pressure and fluid flow using X-ray microtomography
title_sort morphological evaluation of heterogeneous oolitic limestone under pressure and fluid flow using x-ray microtomography
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/66907