Micro-positron emission tomography for measuring sub-core scale single and multiphase transport parameters in porous media

Abstract

Accurate descriptions of heterogeneity in porous media are important for understanding and modeling single phase (e.g. contaminant transport, saltwater intrusion) and multiphase (e.g. geologic carbon storage, enhanced oil recovery) transport problems. Application of medical imaging to experimentally quantify these processes has led to significant progress in material characterization and understanding fluid transport behavior at laboratory scales. While widely utilized in cancer diagnosis and management, cardiology, and neurology, positron emission tomography (PET) has had relatively limited applications in earth science. This study utilizes a small-bore micro-PET scanner to image and quantify the transport behavior of pulses of a conservative aqueous radiotracer injected during single and multiphase flow experiments in two heterogeneous Berea sandstone cores. The cores are discretized into axial-parallel streamtubes, and using the reconstructed micro-PET data, expressions are derived from spatial moment analysis for calculating sub-core tracer flux and pore water velocity. Using the flux and velocity measurements, it is possible to calculate porosity and saturation from volumetric flux balance, and calculate permeability and water relative permeability from Darcy’s law. Second spatial moment analysis enables measurement of sub-core solute dispersion during both single phase and multiphase experiments. A numerical simulation model is developed to verify the assumptions of the streamtube dimension reduction technique. A variation of the reactor ratio is presented as a diagnostic metric to efficiently determine the validity of the streamtube approximation in core and column-scale experiments. This study introduces a new method to quantify sub-core permeability, relative permeability, and dispersion. These experimental and analytical methods provide a foundation for future work on experimental measurements of differences in transport behavior across scales.