Visualization of connectivity in octree based models

An interesting problem in the oil and gas industry is the visualization of the movement of oil and gas in porous media. An example of such a medium is a rock sample with some distribution of holes (pores) connected by channels (pore throats), the solid parts of the rock are called grains. In our work we have simulated the porous medium using a pointer-based octree, representing these pores and grains. This data structure allows us to model the connectivity of the pores and thus visualize fluid penetration within the medium. Whereas earlier models represent a serious simplifications or two dimensional homogeneous layers, our model provides us with a statistically accurate distribution in three dimensions and a more accurate representation of the connectivity. In this paper we present our data structure and the techniques which were used to create models of porous media and their porous networks. Next, we present algorithms for connectivity in octrees and we show how to apply them to modelling and visualization of fluid penetration in porous media.

[1]  Fractal porous media I: Longitudinal stokes flow in random carpets , 1987 .

[2]  F. Dullien,et al.  Characterization of Porous Media — Pore Level , 1991 .

[3]  L. Schwartz,et al.  Analysis of electrical conduction in the grain consolidation model , 1987 .

[4]  Åke Wallin,et al.  Constructing isosurfaces from CT data , 1991, IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications.

[5]  F. Dullien,et al.  Quantitative image analysis of finite porous media , 1986 .

[6]  Norman R. Morrow,et al.  Interfacial Phenomena in Petroleum Recovery , 1990 .

[7]  Jots - a mathematical model of microscopic fluid flow in porous media , 1990 .

[8]  Thomas Herbert Naylor.  Computer Simulation Techniques , 1966 .

[9]  C. Marlé.  Multiphase Flow in Porous Media , 1981 .

[10]  A. Kantzas,et al.  Computer-Assisted Tomography: From Qualitative Visualization To Quantitative Core Analysis , 1992 .

[11]  N. Wardlaw,et al.  Estimation of Recovery Efficiency by Visual Observation of Pore Systems in Reservoir Rocks , 1979 .

[12]  Robert Gordon Moore,et al.  Laboratory Combustion Behaviour Of Countess B Light Oil , 1991 .

[13]  B. Ripley.  Statistical inference for spatial processes , 1990 .

[14]  G. Matthews,et al.  Modelling characteristic properties of sandstones , 1991 .

[15]  D. A. Edwards,et al.  Dispersion of inert solutes in spatially periodic, two-dimensional model porous media , 1991 .

[16]  Hanan Samet,et al.  Neighbor finding techniques for images represented by quadtrees , 1982, Comput. Graph. Image Process..

[17]  W. Visscher,et al.  Random Packing of Equal and Unequal Spheres in Two and Three Dimensions , 1972, Nature.

[18]  R. Dimitrakopoulos.  Stochastic Modeling Of Space Dependent Reservoir-Rock Properties , 1991 .

[19]  Hanan Samet,et al.  Implementing ray tracing with octrees and neighbor finding , 1989, Comput. Graph..

[20]  C. Jacquin,et al.  Fractal porous media II: Geometry of porous geological structures , 1987 .

[21]  I. Fatt.  The Network Model of Porous Media , 1956 .