Xe-Enhanced Computed Tomography - Tight Sandstone

A tight sandstone sample has been projected with x-ray twice. First, the classic micron x-ray computed tomography images have been generated based on the dry sample. The resultant model does not provide the connectivity for permeability computations due to the large portion of sub-resolved pores. To take the effects of sub-resolved pores into account, the sample has been saturated with xenon and then projected for x-ray again. The target is to propose a hybrid digital image processing method to prepare a digital model including solids, pores and porous voxels. The prepared model then can be applied with the Stokes-Brinkman equation to compute the overall permeability of the model.本研究对一块致密砂岩样品进行了两次X射线投影扫描。首先，基于干燥样品生成了经典的微米级X射线计算机断层成像（X-ray Computed Tomography）图像。由于存在大量亚分辨孔隙，所得模型无法满足渗透率计算所需的连通性要求。为了纳入亚分辨孔隙的影响效应，研究人员先将该样品用氙气饱和，随后再次进行X射线投影扫描。本研究旨在提出一种混合数字图像处理方法，以构建包含固体骨架、孔隙以及多孔体素的数字模型；后续可将斯托克斯-布林克曼（Stokes-Brinkman）方程应用于该构建完成的数字模型，从而计算其整体渗透率。