Multi-scale analysis in carbonates by X-ray microtomography: Characterization of the porosity and pore size distribution

The porous systems of reservoir rocks present a complex geometry, involving aspects of shape of pores (morphology) and connectivity between the pores (topology). The macroscopic physical properties of these materials are strongly dependent of their microstructures. Based on these aspects, the present study has as main objective the characterization of the porous system geometry and computational determination of petrophysics properties of carbonate reservoir rocks through the X-ray microtomography methodology. Samples were microtomographed with the microtomographs Skyscan model 1172, installed at the PETROBRAS Research and Development Center (CENPES), Rio de Janeiro-RJ, Brazil and model 1173, installed at Sedimentary Geology Laboratory (LAGESD) in the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ). Two samples of carbonates were measured, Travertine and Dolomite, with spatial resolutions of 7 μm and 9.8 μm and 1.3 μm, 7 μm and 17 μm, respectively for the travertine and dolomite. With the data collected in the acquisitions, 900 transversal sections were reconstructed for each one of the referred resolutions. For the sample of dolomite, the average porosity found was 21.64%, 20.92% and 15.97% for resolutions of 1.3 μm, 7 μm and 17 μm, respectively. For the sample of travertine, the average porosity was 7.80 % and 7.52 % for resolutions of 7 μm and 9.8 μm, respectively. For the sample of dolomite, the pore size distribution showed that 50 % of the porous phase has pores with radius up to 37.6 μm, 84.6 μm and 84.4 μm, for the spatial resolutions of 1.3 μm, 7 μm and 17 μm, respectively. For the sample of travertine, 50 % of the pores have radius up to 148.1 μm and 158.1 μm, for the spatial resolutions of 7 μm and 9.8 μm.