Study on pore characteristics and microstructure of sandstones with different grain sizes

Abstract

The grain sizes have a pronounced influence on the pore characteristics and microstructure of sandstone. This work examined the pore structure and characteristics of three kinds of sandstones with different grain sizes using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods and analyzed their grain size distributions, pore size distributions, T2-distributions, and porosity variations. The experimental results showed that sandstones with different grain sizes have significant differences in the microstructures grain size distribution, pore size distribution, T2-distribution, and porosity variation. The results show that coarse, medium and fine sandstones have two peaks in T2-distributions, mean grain size of 398.5, 145.1 and 25.1μm, respectively, mean pore size of 46.3, 25.9, and 8.4μm, respectively, porosity of 7.52%, 5.88% and 1.55%, respectively, indicating that both coarse and medium sandstones contain big pores, while fine sandstone contains small pores. This study is of significance for understanding of water migration characteristics in aquifers and gas in coal seams after the working face exploitation.