Magnetic resonance imaging in laboratory petrophysical core analysis

Mitchell, Jonathan; Chandrasekera, Thusara C.; Holland, Daniel J.; Gladden, Lynn F.; Fordham, E.J.

doi:10.1016/j.physrep.2013.01.003

Cited by 155 publications

(99 citation statements)

References 231 publications

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“…However, its temporal and spatial resolutions are even lower than what can be achieved by NI 10 . X-ray imaging has been increasingly and widely used for studying liquid transport processes, including evaporative drying, in porous materials 11 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Advancing the visualization of pure water transport in porous materials by fast, talbot interferometry-based multi-contrast x-ray micro-tomography

et al. 2016

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The spatio-temporal distribution (4D) of water in porous materials plays a fundamental role in many natural and technological processes. The dynamics of water transport is strongly entangled with the material's pore-scale structure. Understanding their correlation requires imaging simultaneously the 4D water distribution and the porous microstructure. To date, 4D images with high temporal and spatial resolution have been mainly acquired by attenuation-based X-ray micro-tomography, whereby pure water is substituted by saline solutions with high atomic number components to improve image contrast. The use of saline solutions is however not always desirable, as the altered fluid properties may affect the transport process as well or, as it is the case for hydrating cement-based materials, they may modify the chemical reactions and their kinetics. In this study, we aimed at visualizing pure water transport in porous building materials by a new implementation of fast Talbot interferometry-based multi-contrast X-ray micro-tomography at the P07 beamline of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht at DESY. We report results from a mortar specimen imaged at three different stages during evaporative drying. We show the possibility of visualizing simultaneously the microstructure and the pore-scale water redistribution by the phase contrast images. In addition, different solid material phases are clearly distinguished in these images. The higher contrast between water and the porous substrate, achievable in the phase contrast images, compared with the attenuation ones, empowers new analysis and allows investigating the correlation between the drying process and the porous microstructure. The approach offers the possibility of studying other chemically inert or reactive water transport processes without any chemical or physical perturbation of the processes themselves.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 90%

Advancing the visualization of pure water transport in porous materials by fast, talbot interferometry-based multi-contrast x-ray micro-tomography

et al. 2016

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“…A good account on practical aspects and a review of MRI techniques applicable for petrophysical measurements is given in Mitchell et al (2013). Chen and Balcom (2005), Green et al (2007) proposed to apply a T 1 -based SPRITE technique (single-point ramped imaging with T 1 enhancement) to determine fluid saturation along the length of a centrifuged rock core.…”

Section: Concept Of Relative Permeability With Spatially Resolved Nmrmentioning

confidence: 99%

An Experimental and Numerical Study of Relative Permeability Estimates Using Spatially Resolved $$T_1$$-z NMR

et al. 2017

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Relative permeability is a key characteristic describing flow properties of petroleum reservoirs, aquifers and water retention of soils. Various laboratory methods, typically categorised as steady-state, unsteady-state and centrifuge are used to measure relative permeability and may lead to different results. In recent years, 1D MRI, NMR T 2 and T 1 profiling have been applied for the characterisation of rock cores. It has been shown that spatially resolved NMR in conjunction with centrifuge technique may provide high-quality capillary pressure curves. Combining Burdine and Brooks-Corey models enables estimation of relative permeability from capillary pressure curves. This approach assumes a strong relationship between capillary pressure and relative permeability known to be complex. Here we compare a generalised approach of Green, which relies on saturation profiles set by various capillary drainage techniques, to a NMR relaxation approach. Comparisons are performed experimentally and numerically using three sandstone rocks to test the influence of rock morphology. The numerical part includes simulation of a centrifuge capillary drainage by applying morphological drainage transforms on high-resolution 3D tomograms. T 1 responses along the sample are simulated using a random walk technique. The NMR relaxation-based approach is then compared to LBM simulated relative permeability and to experiment. The study confirms the applicability of NMR relaxation methods for relative permeability estimation of water-wet rocks and validates a numerical approach against experiment.

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“…It is commonly accepted that liquids within a porous medium, such as a rock core, will exhibit a distribution of relaxation times, which is determined by the surface area to volume ratio of the pores and the surface relaxivity of the material (Mitchell et al 2013a). In the present study, the distribution of T 2 values in the sample was obtained following the inversion method of Venkataramanan (2002) using Tikhonov regularization (Butler et al 1981) with the optimization of the regularization parameter performed using the generalized cross-validation (GCV) method (Wahba 1977).…”

Section: Nmr Relaxation Time Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Currently, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and X-ray computed tomography (CT) are the most widely used techniques for imaging in situ core flood fluid distributions, both of which can non-destructively image multiphase fluid systems in porous media (Mitchell et al 2013a). In previous works, X-ray-based methods have been used to great effect to investigate multiphase displacement processes both on the pore scale with X-ray microtomography (µCT) Andrew et al 2013;Rücker et al 2015;Schmatz et al 2015;Berg et al 2016) and on the core scale with X-ray medical CT Krevor et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

In Situ Chemically-Selective Monitoring of Multiphase Displacement Processes in a Carbonate Rock Using 3D Magnetic Resonance Imaging

et al. 2017

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Accurate monitoring of multiphase displacement processes is essential for the development, validation and benchmarking of numerical models used for reservoir simulation and for asset characterization. Here we demonstrate the first application of a chemicallyselective 3D magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique which provides high-temporal resolution, quantitative, spatially resolved information of oil and water saturations during a dynamic imbibition core flood experiment in an Estaillades carbonate rock. Firstly, the relative saturations of dodecane (S o ) and water (S w ), as determined from the MRI measurements, have been benchmarked against those obtained from nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy and volumetric analysis of the core flood effluent. Excellent agreement between both the NMR and MRI determinations of S o and S w was obtained. These values were in agreement to 4 and 9% of the values determined by volumetric analysis, with absolute errors in the measurement of saturation determined by NMR and MRI being 0.04 or less over the range of relative saturations investigated. The chemically-selective 3D MRI method was subsequently applied to monitor the displacement of dodecane in the core plug sample by water under continuous flow conditions at an interstitial velocity of 1.27 × 10 −6 m s −1 (0.4 ft day −1 ). During the core flood, independent images of water and oil distributions within the rock core plug at a spatial resolution of 0.31 mm × 0.39 mm × 0.39 mm were acquired on a timescale of 16 min per image. Using this technique the spatial and temporal dynamics of the displacement process have been monitored. This MRI technique will provide insights to structure-transport relationships associated with multiphase displacement processes in complex porous materials, such as those encountered in petrophysics research.

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Magnetic resonance imaging in laboratory petrophysical core analysis

Cited by 155 publications

References 231 publications

Advancing the visualization of pure water transport in porous materials by fast, talbot interferometry-based multi-contrast x-ray micro-tomography

Advancing the visualization of pure water transport in porous materials by fast, talbot interferometry-based multi-contrast x-ray micro-tomography

An Experimental and Numerical Study of Relative Permeability Estimates Using Spatially Resolved $$T_1$$-z NMR

In Situ Chemically-Selective Monitoring of Multiphase Displacement Processes in a Carbonate Rock Using 3D Magnetic Resonance Imaging

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