Permeability of artificial sandstones identified by their dual-pore structure

Abstract

Summary Geophysical exploration technologies are developed not only to detect and quantify the geofluid in a reservoir but also with the expectation to identify the reservoir's permeability that determines its exploitability. However, the knowledge about whether there is a geophysically invertible pore parameter that determines the permeability of a rock, the key to the geophysical identification of permeability, remains poorly understood. We address this knowledge gap by establishing, through dedicated laboratory measurements and theoretical modelling, the correlations between permeability and the porosity and aspect ratios of the dual-pore structure in artificial sandstones with approximately the same porosity but with different permeability. Permeability is found to increase with increasing compliant porosity but show no apparent relations with the dual-pore aspect ratios, indicating compliant porosity is the key parameter determining the permeability of rocks with the same porosity. The results reveal the key factor that influences permeability in sandstones with the same porosity, and provide a potential way to simply identify the permeability to indicate the exploitability of a geofluid reservoir.