Acoustical-electrical models of tight rocks based on digital rock physics and double-porosity theory

Abstract

The acoustical-electrical (AE) properties of reservoir rocks are affected by their microstructure (pores, microfractures, cracks and their geometry) and saturating fluids. To aid the interpretation, digital rock physics (DRP) is a useful technique to characterize this microstructure, as well as equivalent petrophysical models (EPM) to obtain joint AE properties. We perform thin-section analysis on rocks from tight-oil reservoirs, along with X-ray diffraction (XRD) and computed tomography (CT) to study rock lithology and minerals. We also perform porosity, permeability, ultrasound, and electrical conductivity experiments as a function of confining pressure to analyze pore structure. First, the 3D digital multicomponent cores are created based on a geology-driven multiphase segmentation workflow and images of the samples, and verified based on the porosity and minerals. Then, the AE properties and permeability are calculated by using numerical simulations (finite difference and finite volume methods). Next, the rigid and microcracked (soft) porosities are determined by using the Shapiro model to create the rock skeleton. We develop a joint EPM based on the effective medium AE and the Biot-Rayleigh equations with double porosity to describe the rock properties. The ultrasonic, sonic and seismic multiple data are used to compare and analyze the two approaches. The results show that the DRP techniques based on real cores are effective in characterizing the microstructure and the proposed EPM can describe the AE properties of real rocks, indicating a potential for quantitative characterization of reservoirs.