Quantification method of suspended solids in micromodel using image analysis

Abstract

Micromodel can provide valuable information to improve understanding of pore-scale transport phenomenon and can also be utilized to simulate the transport process at pore scale. This research aims to propose settlement option for quantification of suspended solids in micromodel. The micromodel is used to mimic the formation damage which occurs in reservoir formation that could simultaneously affect enhanced oil recovery. This is done by utilizing visual image interpretation through image analysis on micromodel chip. Following the quantification of suspended solids, the micromodel was injected with brine that eventually forms agglomeration. Images are taken from NIS-Element AR microscope automatically in RGB color profile and then made into grayscale and finally into binary modes. Since the micromodel is simulated in 2D form structure, the quantification method complemented with image analysis is focusing on the quantified area, µm2 region of interest categorized into 3 main groups of area B05, M45 and T50, respectively. This research will explore on segmentation and thresholding processes of the visual data acquired from micromodel experiment. An image-based computational algorithm is programmed in MATLAB Image Processing Toolbox and ImageJ; hence, suspended solids in porous media could be quantified from the visual image executed in micromodel.