Representative elementary volume of rock using X-ray microcomputed tomography: A new statistical approach
Abstract
© 2020 Taufiq Rahman et al. Rock heterogeneity is a key parameter influencing a range of rock properties such as fluid flow and geomechanical characteristics. The previously proposed statistical techniques were able to rank heterogeneity on a qualitative level to different extents; however, they need to select a threshold value for determination of representative elementary volumes (REV), which in turn makes the obtained REV subjective. In this study, an X-ray microcomputed tomography (μCT) technique was used to obtain images from different porous media. A new statistical technique was then used to compute REV, as a measure of heterogeneity, without the necessity of defining a threshold. The performance of the method was compared with other methods. It was shown that the calculated sum of the relative errors of the proposed method was lowest compared to the other statistical techniques for all tested porous media. The proposed method can be applied to different types of rocks for more accurate estimation of a REV.
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
2020
ISSN
14688115
Volume
2020
Publication Title
Geofluids
Publisher
Wiley / Hindawi
School
School of Engineering
RAS ID
35285
Funders
Australian National Low Emissions Coal Research and Development Australian Federal Government
Copyright
free_to_read
Comments
Rahman, T., Ramandi, H. L., Roshan, H., & Iglauer, S. (2020). Representative elementary volume of rock using X-ray microcomputed tomography: A new statistical approach. Geofluids, 2020, article 8866486. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8866486