Interrelations Between Thermal Conductivity and Other Physical Properties of Rocks: Experimental Data

Abstract

— A new non-contact and non-destructive optical scanning instrument provided a large number of high-precision measurements of thermal conductivity tensor components in samples of sedimentary and impact rocks, as well as new insights into interrelations between thermal conductivity and other physical properties. More than 800 core samples (dry and fluid-saturated) of sedimentary rocks from different Russian oil-gas deposits and impact rocks from the well “Nordlingen 1973” drilled in the Ries impact structure (Germany) were studied using optical scanning technology. It was established that the thermal conductivity parallel to the stratification is more informative for petrophysical investigations than the thermal conductivity perpendicular to the layering. Different approaches were developed to estimate porosity, permeability, pore space geometry, and matrix thermal conductivity with a combination of thermal conductivity measurements in dry and fluid-saturated samples and mathematical modelling. These approaches allow prediction of the rock porosity and permeability and their spatial distribution along a well using thermal conductivity measurements performed with the optical scanning instrument directly applied to cores. Conditions and constraints for using Lichtenecker-Asaad's theoretical model for the estimation of porosity and thermal conductivity of sedimentary rocks were determined. A correlation between thermal conductivity and acoustic velocity, porosity, density, and electric resistivity of impact rocks was found for different rock types. New relationships between permeability, electrical and thermal conductivity found for sedimentary rocks are described.