High-resolution 3D FIB-SEM image analysis and validation of numerical simulations of nanometre-scale porous ceramic with comparisons to experimental results
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Welch, NJ
Gray, F
Butcher, AR
Boek, ES
Crawshaw, JP
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The development of focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) techniques has allowed high-resolution 3D imaging of nanometre-scale porous materials. These systems are of important interest to the oil and gas sector, as well as for the safe long-term storage of carbon and nuclear waste. This work focuses on validating the accurate representation of sample pore space in FIB-SEM-reconstructed volumes and the predicted permeability of these systems from subsequent single-phase flow simulations using a highly homogeneous nanometre-scale, mesoporous (2–50 nm) to macroporous (>50 nm), porous ceramic in initial developments for digital rock physics. The limited volume of investigation available from FIB-SEM has precluded direct quantitative validation of petrophysical parameters estimated from such studies on rock samples due to sample heterogeneity, large variations in recorded sample pore sizes and lack of pore connectivity. By using homogeneous synthetic ceramic samples we have shown that lattice-Boltzmann flow simulations using processed FIB-SEM images are capable of predicting the permeability of a homogeneous material dominated by 10–100 nanometre-scale pores (similar, albeit simpler, to those in natural samples) at the much larger scale where permeability measurements become practical. This result shows the LB flow simulations can be used with confidence in pores at this scale allowing future work to focus on sample preparation techniques for samples sensitive to drying and multiple FIB-SEM site selection for the population of larger-scale models for heterogeneous systems.
Date Issued
2017-05-04
Date Acceptance
2017-04-06
Citation
Transport in Porous Media, 2017, 118 (3), pp.373-392
ISSN
0169-3913
Publisher
Springer Verlag
Start Page
373
End Page
392
Journal / Book Title
Transport in Porous Media
Volume
118
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2017. Open Access.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.
Sponsor
Qatar Shell Research and Technology Center QSTP LLC
Identifier
http://gateway.webofknowledge.com/gateway/Gateway.cgi?GWVersion=2&SrcApp=PARTNER_APP&SrcAuth=LinksAMR&KeyUT=WOS:000403696900003&DestLinkType=FullRecord&DestApp=ALL_WOS&UsrCustomerID=1ba7043ffcc86c417c072aa74d649202
Grant Number
490000724
Subjects
Science & Technology
Technology
Engineering, Chemical
Engineering
FIB-SEM
Lattice-Boltzmann model
Microporosity
Permeability prediction
Low permeability
GAS BREAKTHROUGH EXPERIMENTS
TRANSIENT LABORATORY METHOD
LATTICE BOLTZMANN-EQUATION
OPALINUS CLAY
CO2 STORAGE
HYDRAULIC-PROPERTIES
SEALING EFFICIENCY
MERCURY INTRUSION
FLUID TRANSPORT
TIGHT ROCKS
Publication Status
Published