Reconstruction of Berea sandstone and pore-scale modelling of wettability effects

We present an integrated procedure for estimating permeability, conductivity, capillary pressure, and relative permeability of porous media. Although the method is general, we demonstrate its power and versatility on samples of Berea sandstone. The method utilizes petrographical information obtained from 2D thin sections to reconstruct 3D porous media. The permeability and conductivity are determined by solving numerically the local equations governing the transport. The reconstructed microstructure is transformed into a topologically equivalent network that is used directly as input to a network model. Computed two-phase and three-phase relative permeabilities for water wet conditions are in good agreement with experimental data. We present a method for characterizing wettability on the pore-scale from measured Amott wettability indices. Simulated effects of wettability on waterflood relative permeabilities and oil recovery compare favourably with experimental results. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.