Prediction of permeability from the skeleton of three-dimensional pore structure

The main purpose of the present work is to predict the permeability of a po rous medium from its three-dimensional (3D) porous structure network. In th is work, 3D porous structure is reconstructed by the truncated Gaussian met hod using Fourier transform and starting from a 2D binary image obtained fr om a thin section of a porous sample. The skeleton of the 3D porous structu re provides a way of visualizing the graph of the pore network. It is deter mined using a thinning algorithm, which is conceived to preserve topology. It gives both visual and quantitative information about the connectivity of the pore space, the coordination number for every node and local hydraulic radius. Once the network of the pore structure is obtained, the macroscopi c transport properties, such as the permeability, can be predicted. The met hod is applied to a 500 mo Berea sandstone and the predicted permeability i s in good agreement with the experimental value and empirical correlations.