Abstract
As one of the most prevalent porous media, rock contains a large number of pore throats of varying size and shape. It is essential to analyze the complex pore network structure and to define the network structural features to reveal the microscopic mechanism of the rock permeability. In this paper, based on the complex network theory and CT scanning technology, sandstone is used as an example to study the structural characteristics of the rock network with different porosities. The results show that the structural characteristics of the sandstone seepage network are consistent with BA scale-free network, whose average path length increases with the size of the network. At the same time, the porosity of the sandstone is strongly influenced by the number of throat in the rock pore network. Furthermore, our analysis concludes that a few pores with a large number of connections contribute significantly to the overall connectivity of the sandstone seepage network. Removing the ‘hub’ pores increased the average path length of the entire network by 27.63-37.26%, which could not be achieved by randomly removing method. While the sandstone seepage network has better fault tolerance and robustness to external random attacks, this study provides a new approach to study the mechanisms of fluid storage and migration in porous media.
Highlights
In recent years, with the extensive development and utilisation of nonlinear reservoirs, oil and gas exploration techniques have become the focus of current research [1,2,3]
In order to develop the model of the pore network, the data of pore structure is extracted based on the skeletonization algorithm
Based on the complex network theory, we have explored the structural characteristics of the sandstone pore network
Summary
With the extensive development and utilisation of nonlinear reservoirs, oil and gas exploration techniques have become the focus of current research [1,2,3]. The depth of the reservoir and the complex stresses making are it difficult to visualise and quantitatively characterise the microscopic pore network structure [4,5,6]. It has become the aim of many scientists and engineers to further explore the rock pore structure, define the structural characteristics of the network, and reveal the contribution of rock microstructure to the permeability [7,8,9,10]. Hu and Li used the theory of directional seepage to develop a stochastic network model which can characterise the microscopic pore structure and wettability of rocks [19]. The robustness of rock pore space and the impact on macroscopic permeability are analyzed based on the contribution of variations in stratigraphic factors to the rock-ore network
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