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Effects of Pore Structure on Stress-Dependent Fluid Flow in Synthetic Porous Rocks Using Microfocus X-ray Computed Tomography

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Abstract

Based on microfocus X-ray computed tomography analyses, the relationship between the characteristics of pore structure and fluid flow behavior was investigated through the single-phase flow experiment. The macroscopic bulk fluid seepage behavior was fundamentally explained by the microscale flow mechanism considering all the porous microstructure analysis of artificial cores. The results indicate that the pore size and connectivity have significant effects on the initial permeability of the rock cores. The permeabilities obtained from different methods have a linear law relationship with porosities in tested artificial cores. The results also suggest that the permeability of core decreases exponentially with the increase in effective stress. The inner different pore structures have an important influence on the stress-dependent fluid flow in synthetic porous rocks. The polynomial equation yields well fittings of the artificial core which has the poor pore sorting characteristic. The permeabilities of the artificial core are more significantly affected by changes in the low effective stress range. The larger the pore channel of the artificial core is, the greater influence on permeability the pressure will have. The stress sensitivity of artificial core increases as the grain diameter decreases. The heterogeneous coefficient and the stress sensitivity of permeability are positively correlated.

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Acknowledgements

The research is financially supported by National Science and Technology Key Project Fund (Nos. 2016YFC0600708 and 2016YFC0801401), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51874312 and 51861145403), Yue Qi Distinguished Scholar Project of China University of Mining & Technology (Beijing) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. The authors specially thank Yanhui Dong and Baohua Wang for their suggestions and aid in both conducting the experiments and analyzing the data. The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their considerable effort in improving the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory for Precise Mining of Intergrown Energy and Resources, China University of Mining and Technology (Beijing), Beijing, 100083, China

    Yixin Zhao, Guangpei Zhu, Yi Wang & Cun Zhang

  2. School of Energy & Mining Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100083, China

    Yixin Zhao, Guangpei Zhu, Yi Wang & Cun Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Coal Resources and Safe Mining, China University of Mining and Technology, Beijing, 100083, China

    Yixin Zhao

  4. College of Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Guangpei Zhu

  5. Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, G3 Center and EMS Energy Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Shimin Liu

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Zhao, Y., Zhu, G., Liu, S. et al. Effects of Pore Structure on Stress-Dependent Fluid Flow in Synthetic Porous Rocks Using Microfocus X-ray Computed Tomography. Transp Porous Med 128, 653–675 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-019-01264-4

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