3D Printing for Experiments in Petrophysics, Rock Physics, and Rock Mechanics: A Review

Abstract

Summary Geoscientific and engineering experiments in petrophysics, rock physics, and rock mechanics depend on multiple, costly, and sometimes rare samples used to characterize the properties of natural rocks. Testing these samples helps in modeling various hydrocarbon recovery and stimulation scenarios, as well as understanding the fluid-rock interactions in the subsurface under various pressure and temperature conditions. Over the last decade, 3D printing has matured to become a more commonly available tool to enable repeatable experiments with controllable materials and pore system geometries to investigate petrophysical, geomechanical, and geophysical properties of porous rocks. This review introduces the development, characteristics, and capabilities of 3D printing technology that are specifically used in research. Applications in the realm of petrophysics highlight the issues of replicating the pore network geometry and subsurface physics, aiming at understanding fluid flow in porous media problems. Using 3D-printed models in rock mechanics experiments focuses on generating comparable geomechanical properties and reproducing fractures, joint surfaces, and other rock structures, whereas in rock physics, geophysical forward modeling is highlighted to take advantage of 3D printing technology. By summarizing the recent advances in 3D printing as applied to petrophysics, rock physics, and rock mechanics, this review paper presents the current state of the art and the challenges in scale, cost, time, and materials, as well as the directions for advancing this frontier discipline to answer various fundamental questions regarding porous media research using 3D printing technology.

Fabrications and Applications of Micro/Nanofluidics in Oil and Gas Recovery: A Comprehensive Review

“…However, there are many challenges limiting the further application of micromodels. Fabrication of 3D micro/nanomodels is still limited. The common methods to build 3D micromodels are replica molding, 3D printing , and packing particles . However, these methods have low resolutions, which limits the applications in small pore structure .…”

“…It is worth to focus on improvement in 3D printing techniques and new materials that are low-cost, optically transparent, robust and pintable. Manufacturing of pores and channels in nanometer size is of great importance in the future because unconventional reservoirs will play more important roles. Advanced imaging techniques and microscopies should be introduced to micro/nanofluidics, including application of appropriate algorithm based on image analysis which offer accurate characterization of porous media and effective processing speed of fluid flow data in real time. ,, 4D CT techniques are gaining significant attention in the imaging industry There is a need to develop an integrated suite of tools that find averaged properties at different scales, which can be properly incorporated into simulations of relevant flow and transport processes at larger scales …”

“…Advanced imaging techniques and microscopies should be introduced to micro/nanofluidics, including application of appropriate algorithm based on image analysis which offer accurate characterization of porous media and effective processing speed of fluid flow data in real time. ,, 4D CT techniques are gaining significant attention in the imaging industry …”

“…(2) Advanced imaging techniques and microscopies should be introduced to micro/nanofluidics, including applica- tion of appropriate algorithm based on image analysis which offer accurate characterization of porous media and effective processing speed of fluid flow data in real time. 5,225,226 4D CT techniques are gaining significant attention in the imaging industry. 12 (3) There is a need to develop an integrated suite of tools that find averaged properties at different scales, which can be properly incorporated into simulations of relevant flow and transport processes at larger scales.…”

Size effects in the uniaxial compressive properties of 3D printed models of rocks: an experimental investigation

“…In particular, the application of light-sensitive resins, polylactic acid, and gypsum has opened up completely new avenues for studying the physical and mechanical properties of natural rocks with printed models (Ju et al 2021;Yan et al 2020). Numerous researchers have used 3D printing technology to prepare physical models that possess the same structure as natural rocks and investigated the differences between the physical and mechanical behaviors of these models and natural rocks (Gao et al 2020;Kong et al 2021Kong et al , 2018Mostaghimi et al 2017;Schlüter et al 2014;Zhou and Zhu 2017). Current rock 3D printing research focuses on the observation of the basic mechanical properties in the size range of representative samples (i.e., the mechanical properties at the RVE scale), and studies on the size effect of the mechanical behavior of rock printed models and the RVE characteristic scale are limited.…”