Reconstruction of 3-D digital cores using a hybrid method

Abstract

A 3-D digital core describes the pore space microstructure of rocks. An X-ray micro CT scan is the most accurate and direct but costly method to obtain a 3-D digital core. In this study, we propose a hybrid method which combines sedimentation simulation and simulated annealing (SA) method to generate 3-D digital cores based on 2-D images of rocks. The method starts with the sedimentation simulation to build a 3-D digital core, which is the initial configuration for the SA method. We update the initial digital core using the SA method to match the auto-correlation function of the 2-D rock image and eventually build the final 3-D digital core. Compared with the typical SA method, the hybrid method has significantly reduced the computation time. Local porosity theory is applied to quantitatively compare the reconstructed 3-D digital cores with the X-ray micro CT 3-D images. The results indicate that the 3-D digital cores reconstructed by the hybrid method have homogeneity and geometric connectivity similar to those of the X-ray micro CT image. The formation factors and permeabilities of the reconstructed 3-D digital cores are estimated using the finite element method (FEM) and lattice Boltzmann method (LBM), respectively. The simulated results are in good agreement with the experimental measurements. Comparison of the simulation results suggests that the digital cores reconstructed by the hybrid method more closely reflect the true transport properties than the typical SA method alone.