Digital rock physics, chemistry, and biology: challenges and prospects of pore-scale modelling approach

Understanding the joint impacts of soil architecture and microbial dynamics on soil functions: Insights derived from microscale models

“…Whereas the above examples are all dealing with artificial porous media and have applications that do not directly involve soils (for more details, see the recent review by Sadeghnejad et al (2021)), they address important interactions that occur as well within soil environments but have yet to be captured by microscale models designed to describe and predict soil functions. Local accumulation of biomass and its metabolic by‐products in soils, although not in the form of continuous biofilms (Baveye, 2020; Flemming et al, 2021), can contribute to preferential flow paths.…”

A perspective on applied geochemistry in porous media: Reactive transport modeling of geochemical dynamics and the interplay with flow phenomena and physical alteration

“…It should, however, be acknowledged that given the multi-scale nature of geo-materials, sub-resolution features may still exist even though the resolution of image instruments has been extended to sub-micron and nanometer (Schlüter et al 2014). A comprehensive review of the various pore space characterization techniques has been given by (Sadeghnejad, Enzmann, and Kersten 2021) in our special issue and (Blunt et al 2013).…”

Influence of Heterogeneity on Carbonate Permeability Upscaling: A Renormalization Approach Coupled with the Pore Network Model

“…This is particularly true for carbonate rocks, which demonstrate structural heterogeneity at a range of scales . Typically, carbonate rocks (e.g., dolomites and limestones) demonstrate a complex microstructure, which comprises micro-sized pores, for example, intraparticle pores and millimeter-scale pores with cementation at throat grains, for example, interparticle, inter-crystal, and vuggy pores. , …”

“…In this context, the application of digital rock physics (DRP) (also known as digital core analysis) has seen remarkable growth in subsurface applications during the last decade. − The DRP approach involves (a) acquisition of high-resolution images of the rock microstructure using X-ray computed microtomography (CT) − and (b) application of direct numerical simulation (DNS) or pore network modeling (PNM) to compute the desired rock properties. ,− Thus, the absolute rock permeability could be determined efficiently with satisfactory accuracy from 3D tomographic images using DRP modeling. The key advantages of the DRP approach are (a) the speed of acquisition of CT images (every 5 years, there is an estimated 10-fold increase in the rate of acquisition of CT images), and (b) it offers an understanding of the physics of the pore-scale processes …”

“…4 Typically, carbonate rocks (e.g., dolomites and limestones) demonstrate a complex microstructure, which comprises micro-sized pores, for example, intraparticle pores and millimeter-scale pores with cementation at throat grains, for example, interparticle, intercrystal, and vuggy pores. 5,6 In this context, the application of digital rock physics (DRP) (also known as digital core analysis) has seen remarkable growth in subsurface applications during the last decade. 7−10 The DRP approach involves (a) acquisition of high-resolution images of the rock microstructure using X-ray computed microtomography (CT) 11−15 and (b) application of direct numerical simulation (DNS) or pore network modeling (PNM) to compute the desired rock properties.…”