Analysis of reconstructed multisource and multiscale 3-D digital rocks based on the cycle-consistent generative adversarial network method

Abstract

SUMMARY Digital rock physics (DRP) is important for characterizing the pore characteristics and petrophysical parameters of rocks from a microscopic perspective. Among the digital rock reconstruction methods, the most widely used is the computer tomography (CT) scan method. However, the pore structure of rocks has multiscale features, and CT scan images with a single resolution cannot completely describe the pore structure characteristics of rocks. In this paper, we analysed reconstructed multisource and multiscale 3-D digital rocks based on the cycle-consistent generative adversarial network (CycleGAN) method. This method fully integrates the advantages of the large field of view of low-resolution images and the high-precision features of high-resolution images. To investigate the performance of the method, two sequences of CT scan images of a sandstone (sample A) and a carbonate rock (sample B) collected from oilfields were studied. Moreover, due to the high resolution of scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, we also constructed 3-D digital rocks with different resolutions of the Berea sandstone based on the combination of CT scan images and SEM images. Finally, the statistical properties and absolute permeabilities were calculated to evaluate the accuracies of reconstructed multisource and multiscale 3-D digital rocks. The results show that the reconstructed multiscale digital rocks based on the CycleGAN method have good accuracy in terms of statistical properties and petrophysical properties. Considering the computational cost and computational accuracy, for high- and low-resolution CT scan images and CT scan images with SEM images as training image data sources, we suggest that the resolution of the reconstructed multiscale digital cores is 4–8 times and 4–16 times higher than that of the low-resolution CT scan images, respectively. The findings of our research will be helpful in gaining insight into the petrophysical properties of heterogeneous rocks.