Reservoir characterization

Investigating Aperture-Based Permeability and Capillary Pressure in Rock Fractures

This paper provides a more straightforward method for estimating stress-dependent permeability and capillary pressure in rock fractures.

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Fig. 1: Schematic of the experimental apparatus.

Laboratory measurements of fracture-aperture distributions have been made by use of computed-tomography (CT) scanning under various conditions of effective stress. The stress-dependent aperture-distribution data demonstrate that increasing stress results in two effects: The mean aperture will decrease and the variance of aperture distribution will increase. By analyzing the stress-dependent mean and variance of aperture distributions, this paper provides a more straightforward method for estimating stress-dependent permeability and capillary pressure in rock fractures.

Experimental Setup

A Berea sandstone is cut to create a fracture in the middle of the core. The sample is moderately homogeneous, with little porosity variation.

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