Dynamic modeling of the formation damage and mud cake deposition using filtration theories coupled with SEM image processing

Abstract

In the present paper, a dynamic modeling is presented for deposition of the mud solid particles over and through the porous sandstones during permeability plugging experiments. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with image processing are utilized to find the porosity and pore size distribution of the mud cake. The structure of the porous rock as well as the mud cake are modeled via bundle of the curved tubes approach and deposition probability of the solid particles has been taken into the account through filtration theories. Four different sandstones in addition to four mud samples were utilized to measure and predict the volume of the expelled fluid during the 30 min of filtration through thin sections of the rock samples. The presented model is successful to predict the amount of expelled fluid with about 9.2% of relative error. The novelty of the present study, is quantitative utilization of the SEM images by applying the watershed segmentation algorithm to detect and measure the size of the mud cake pore spaces.