Full text

Turn on search term navigation

© 2022. This work is published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

Mineral dissolution and precipitation can substantially affect rock permeability, which is a critical parameter for a broad range of geological subsurface applications. Virtual experiments on digital pore-scale samples represent a powerful and flexible approach to understand the impact of microstructural alterations on evolving hydraulic rock behaviour and quantify trends in permeability.

In the present study, porosity-permeability relations are simulated for a precipitation-dissolution cycle within a typical reservoir sandstone. A hysteresis in permeability is observed depending on the geochemical process and dominating reaction regime, whereby permeability of the six investigated reaction paths varies by more than two orders of magnitude at a porosity of 17 %. Controlling parameters for this hysteresis phenomenon are the closure and re-opening of micro-scale flow channels, derived from changes in pore throat diameter and connectivity of the pore network. In general, a transport-limited regime exhibits a stronger impact on permeability than a reaction-limited regime, which uniformly alters the pore space. In case of mineral precipitation, higher permeability reduction results from successive clogging of pore throats, whereas in case of dissolution, permeability significantly increases due to a widening of existing flow paths. Both, the geochemical process and dominating reaction regime govern characteristic microstructural alterations, which cannot be simply reversed by the inversion of the geochemical processes itself. Hence, permeability evolution clearly depends on the hydrogeochemical history of the sample.

Details

Title
Hysteresis in permeability evolution simulated for a sandstone by mineral precipitation and dissolution
Author
Wetzel, Maria 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Kempka, Thomas 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Kühn, Michael 2   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Fluid Systems Modelling, Potsdam, Germany 
 GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Fluid Systems Modelling, Potsdam, Germany; Institute of Geosciences, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany 
Pages
1-10
Publication year
2022
Publication date
2022
Publisher
Copernicus GmbH
ISSN
16807340
e-ISSN
16807359
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2723366624
Copyright
© 2022. This work is published under https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.