A new method for pore structure quantification and pore network extraction from SEM images

Chenhui Wang; Kejian Wu; Gilbert George Scott; Alfred R. Akisanya; Quan Gan; Yingfang Zhou

doi:10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02522

A new method for pore structure quantification and pore network extraction from SEM images

Chenhui Wang^*, Kejian Wu, Gilbert George Scott, Alfred R. Akisanya, Quan Gan, Yingfang Zhou

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

9 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The structure of porous media is complex yet fundamental to the understanding of transport processes including single and multi-phase fluid flow. Pore network modelling is a valuable tool for studying these processes in many diverse porous media. This paper presents a new method of discretizing the pore space into connected pore elements which capture the pore geometry and topology. This method discards the diﬀerence between pore bodies and throats, instead treats them equally as pore elements which captures the features of pore structure from the widest to the narrowest part of the pore space (pore body to pore throat), honours the topology and does not over-segment the pore space. The method is a higher level discretization of the pore space compared to other traditional methods which construct pore throats explicitly. Pore networks were extracted from three test images using the method and the computed flow properties are compared with finite element simulation in terms of absolute permeability. A reasonable agreement with finite element simulation is achieved, demonstrating the value and functionality of the new pore structure quantification method.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	82-94
Number of pages	13
Journal	Energy & Fuels
Volume	34
Issue number	1
Early online date	9 Dec 2019
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02522
Publication status	Published - 16 Jan 2020

Bibliographical note

C.W. thanks China Scholarship Council’s ﬁnancial support for his Ph.D. study. The authors thank Anasuria Operating Company Limited (AOC) for making available the core plug samples. We thank the two reviewers for their insight comments and constructive suggestions toward improving our manuscript. Finally, we thank John Still (University of Aberdeen Centre for Electron Microscopy, Analysis and Characterisation (ACEMAC)) for invaluable assistance in the acquisition of SEM images.

Keywords

ALGORITHM
DRAINAGE
POROUS-MEDIA
PREDICTION
SANDSTONE
SCALE
SINGLE

Access to Document

10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02522Licence: Unspecified

Wang_etal_EnergyandFuels_A_new_method_AAM
This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of a Published Work that appeared in final form in Energy & Fuels, copyright © American Chemical Society after peer review and technical editing by the publisher. To access the final edited and published work see https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02522
Accepted author manuscript, 3.2 MBLicence: Other

Cite this

@article{a160d30a6eff4d248c868ac415f273e5,

title = "A new method for pore structure quantification and pore network extraction from SEM images",

abstract = "The structure of porous media is complex yet fundamental to the understanding of transport processes including single and multi-phase fluid flow. Pore network modelling is a valuable tool for studying these processes in many diverse porous media. This paper presents a new method of discretizing the pore space into connected pore elements which capture the pore geometry and topology. This method discards the diﬀerence between pore bodies and throats, instead treats them equally as pore elements which captures the features of pore structure from the widest to the narrowest part of the pore space (pore body to pore throat), honours the topology and does not over-segment the pore space. The method is a higher level discretization of the pore space compared to other traditional methods which construct pore throats explicitly. Pore networks were extracted from three test images using the method and the computed flow properties are compared with finite element simulation in terms of absolute permeability. A reasonable agreement with finite element simulation is achieved, demonstrating the value and functionality of the new pore structure quantification method.",

keywords = "ALGORITHM, DRAINAGE, POROUS-MEDIA, PREDICTION, SANDSTONE, SCALE, SINGLE",

author = "Chenhui Wang and Kejian Wu and Scott, {Gilbert George} and Akisanya, {Alfred R.} and Quan Gan and Yingfang Zhou",

note = "C.W. thanks China Scholarship Council{\textquoteright}s ﬁnancial support for his Ph.D. study. The authors thank Anasuria Operating Company Limited (AOC) for making available the core plug samples. We thank the two reviewers for their insight comments and constructive suggestions toward improving our manuscript. Finally, we thank John Still (University of Aberdeen Centre for Electron Microscopy, Analysis and Characterisation (ACEMAC)) for invaluable assistance in the acquisition of SEM images. ",

year = "2020",

month = jan,

day = "16",

doi = "10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02522",

language = "English",

volume = "34",

pages = "82--94",

journal = "Energy & Fuels",

issn = "0887-0624",

publisher = "American Chemical Society",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - A new method for pore structure quantification and pore network extraction from SEM images

AU - Wang, Chenhui

AU - Wu, Kejian

AU - Scott, Gilbert George

AU - Akisanya, Alfred R.

AU - Gan, Quan

AU - Zhou, Yingfang

N1 - C.W. thanks China Scholarship Council’s ﬁnancial support for his Ph.D. study. The authors thank Anasuria Operating Company Limited (AOC) for making available the core plug samples. We thank the two reviewers for their insight comments and constructive suggestions toward improving our manuscript. Finally, we thank John Still (University of Aberdeen Centre for Electron Microscopy, Analysis and Characterisation (ACEMAC)) for invaluable assistance in the acquisition of SEM images.

PY - 2020/1/16

Y1 - 2020/1/16

N2 - The structure of porous media is complex yet fundamental to the understanding of transport processes including single and multi-phase fluid flow. Pore network modelling is a valuable tool for studying these processes in many diverse porous media. This paper presents a new method of discretizing the pore space into connected pore elements which capture the pore geometry and topology. This method discards the diﬀerence between pore bodies and throats, instead treats them equally as pore elements which captures the features of pore structure from the widest to the narrowest part of the pore space (pore body to pore throat), honours the topology and does not over-segment the pore space. The method is a higher level discretization of the pore space compared to other traditional methods which construct pore throats explicitly. Pore networks were extracted from three test images using the method and the computed flow properties are compared with finite element simulation in terms of absolute permeability. A reasonable agreement with finite element simulation is achieved, demonstrating the value and functionality of the new pore structure quantification method.

AB - The structure of porous media is complex yet fundamental to the understanding of transport processes including single and multi-phase fluid flow. Pore network modelling is a valuable tool for studying these processes in many diverse porous media. This paper presents a new method of discretizing the pore space into connected pore elements which capture the pore geometry and topology. This method discards the diﬀerence between pore bodies and throats, instead treats them equally as pore elements which captures the features of pore structure from the widest to the narrowest part of the pore space (pore body to pore throat), honours the topology and does not over-segment the pore space. The method is a higher level discretization of the pore space compared to other traditional methods which construct pore throats explicitly. Pore networks were extracted from three test images using the method and the computed flow properties are compared with finite element simulation in terms of absolute permeability. A reasonable agreement with finite element simulation is achieved, demonstrating the value and functionality of the new pore structure quantification method.

KW - ALGORITHM

KW - DRAINAGE

KW - POROUS-MEDIA

KW - PREDICTION

KW - SANDSTONE

KW - SCALE

KW - SINGLE

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077447061&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02522

DO - 10.1021/acs.energyfuels.9b02522

M3 - Article

SN - 0887-0624

VL - 34

SP - 82

EP - 94

JO - Energy & Fuels

JF - Energy & Fuels

IS - 1

ER -

A new method for pore structure quantification and pore network extraction from SEM images

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this