Modeling velocity in carbonates using a dual porosity DEM model

Gregor T. Baechle*, Arnout Colpaert**, Gregor P. Eberli* and Ralf J. Weger* *Comparative Sedimentology Laboratory, University of Miami, USA **Statoil Research Center, Trondheim, Norway
Summary The differential effective medium theory is used to model the velocity of carbonates with two predefined end-member pore types and under dry and water saturated conditions. The dual porosity DEM takes into account input parameters derived from digital image analysis of thin sections. In particular the respective amount of microporosity and macroporosity and the aspect ratio of the macropores are incorporated. A conceptual aspect ratio of 0.1 for micropores and a measured aspect ratio of 0.5 for macropores is used as input parameters for the differential effective medium (DEM) model. The model predicts that the compliant micropores have a strong influence on the sonic velocity of porous carbonates because increasing concentrations of micropores reduce the rock stiffness. The model values are compared to high frequency (1MHz) laboratory velocity measurements. These velocity predictions with the dual porosity DEM model show significant better velocity prediction than empirical models, e.g. the Wyllie times average equation. We obtain a rootmean-square-error of 392 m/s when comparing predicted with measured velocity values. Our results also show that a differential effective medium model that uses measured input parameters from quantitative digital image analysis improves estimates of acoustic properties of carbonates. Introduction Elastic moduli are affected directly by three influencing factors: rock framework, pore fluid and pore space. Indirect factors, such as, changes in temperature and pressure have the potential to modify the effect of the direct factors on elastic moduli. Carbonate rocks, in contrast to sandstone, display complex pore structures with an astonishing range of pore sizes and pore shapes. Although the pore shape is the most significant rock property, affecting the elastic property of the rock (Wang, 2001), it can not be easily quantified. In comparison to the pore shape, the pore size is relatively easily to measure and quantify. A positive correlation between pore size and velocity was first been observed by Hamilton et al. (1956). Anselmetti and Eberli (1993) observed a relationship between pore type and velocity, where rock samples containing moldic and intraparticle porosity have a higher velocity than samples containing micro-moldic porosity and microporosity. Effective medium models have the potential to capture the effect of those pore geometries on acoustic properties. Many experimental and numerical studies use the aspect ratios as pore type indicators. The aspect ratio is either assigned (Goldberg and Gurevich, 1998, Xu and White, 1995 and Markov et al., 2005), derived from velocitypressure measurements (Sun and Goldberg, 1997), derived from joint inversion of acoustic and resistivity measurements (Kazatchenko et al., 2004) or estimated using neural networks (Yan et al., 2002). Only a few studies used aspect ratios determined from thin sections and they proved not to capture the observed velocity variations (Colpaert et al., 2007 and Rosseb et al., 2005). Effective medium models with various concentrations of pores and assigned pore shapes or pore types have been used to characterize the acoustic properties of carbonate rocks (Brie, 2001 and Kumar at al., 2005). In this study we emphasize the importance of separating the effects of micropores and macropores when evaluating acoustic properties of carbonates (Baechle et al., 2004). Consequently, we divide the pore space into stiff macropores characterized by high aspect ratio pores and compliant micropores characterized by low aspect ratio pores, using a similar DEM approach as Xu and White (1995) and Markov et al. (2005). Using digital image analysis we measured the aspect ratio of the macropores, and the amounts of micropores and macropores. In the modeling, these input parameters are used to solve for the best-fit aspect ratio of the micropores to predict velocity. The model results are compared to the laboratory measurements to estimate the validity of the model. Data Set and Method Our study is based on mining the CSL database for carbonate samples with a wide range of pore and rock types and ages from ten to hundreds of million years. For all these samples, digital images, p- and s-wave velocity, porosity, mineralogy (calcite or dolomite) and grain density is known. The dolostones are dominantly re-crystallized and have vuggy and inter-crystalline pore types. The limestones consist of of floatstone and frame/boundstones, grainstones and packstones, with a wide range of dominant pore types: interparticle, intraparticle, moldic, vuggy and microporosity. Digital image analysis is performed on thin sections that are produced from an end piece of each core plug sample . To visually separate the rock from the pore space, the rocks pore space is saturated with blue epoxy. A full thin section digital image at a resolution of 6 to 7 microns per pixel consists of several digital images that are stitched

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Modeling the effects of pore structure on velocity

together. The full color image is segmented into a black and white binary image, with the white features representing the pore space (Weger, 2006). The imaged pore space is macroporosity, representing pores, which are larger than 30 microns. Subtracting the amount of this macro-porosity from the total plug porosity determines microporosity (Anselmetti and Eberli, 1997). The shapes of the visible pores are measured as the mean of the aspect ratio of the entire pore population, describing the ratio between minimum and maximum axis diameter of the bestfit ellipse around a selected pore. Ultrasonic compressional wave and shear wave velocity measurements are performed on carbonate plugs at a frequency of ~ 1 MHz. The samples were measured under dry conditions with ambient atmospheric pore pressure and under water saturated conditions, at 2 MPa pore pressure, the differential hydrostatic pressures was kept at 10 MPa. All data presented are taken from the loading cycle. micropores is equal to the total porosity. The information about the pore volume fractions of the two pore size populations is derived from quantitative digital image analysis. In addition to these pore size proportion measurements, the average aspect ratio of the macropores has been measured to characterize the pore shape. In addition to these measurements, we know the fluid content and the mineralogy of our samples. Thus, the only two independent variables in our model are porosity and the aspect ratio of micropores. We first begin the selection of aspect ratios for the two pore populations: compliant micropores with small aspect ratio (< 0.15) and near-spherical macropores with high aspect ratios of 0.5. Next we minimize the root-mean-square-error of theoretically predicted and experimentally determined compressional and shear wave velocities in a best-fit procedure by adjusting the micropore aspect ratio. We are able to predict the compressional and shear wave velocities if the following parameters are known: mineral moduli, fluid bulk modulus, grain density, fluid density, image macroporosity and microporosity and their aspect ratios. The aspect ratio of the macropores and micropores are given by our empirical best-fit procedure. The amount of macroporosity and microporosity is calculated using digital thin section images. Results Measured velocity The p-wave velocity of the 250 samples measured under water saturated condition range from 6.5 to 2 km/s (Fig. 1a). The porosity covers a wide range, from zero to 55% porosity (Fig. 1a). The limestone samples cover a similar wide range of velocity and porosity than the dolostones. A large scatter of velocity exists at a given porosity, e.g. the velocity spans from ~ 2.5 km/s to ~ 5.2 km/s at porosity of 30%. Similarly, the porosity varies at given velocity, e.g. the porosity ranges from 20 to over 50% at a velocity of 3.5 km/s. The 160 samples measured under dry conditions shows a range of porosity from 2 to 50%. The velocity ranges from 6.5 to 2.5 km/s. Velocity porosity data above 35% porosity is less abundant than in the dataset measured under water-saturated conditions. With one exception, the dolostones show velocities above 3.5 km/s, lacking the slow p-wave velocity. Vp/Vs shows increasing scatter with increasing porosity, under dry and water saturated conditions. The bulk of the samples show Vp/Vs ratio between 1.75 and 2.2 under water-saturated conditions and Vp/Vs ratio between 1.6 and 2 under dry conditions. Effects of Mineralogy

Differential effective medium (DEM) theory We model the elastic properties of rocks with different pore types using the differential effective medium model for high porosity rocks. A detailed review of the DEM theory is given by Zimmerman (1991). In our model we separate total porosity into microporosity and macroporosity. We assign aspect ratios with an initial guess of spherical-stiff macropores and compliant micropores. The p-wave and s-wave velocity is then calculated iteratively solving the DEM differential equations (Berryman, 1992), by adding small portions of pores with assigned aspect ratios into the host material (non porous limestone or dolostone), until total porosity is attained:

(1 ) (1 )

d * K () = (K 2 K * )P (*2) () d d * () = ( 2 * )Q (*2 ) () d

[ [

(1)

(2) where, K1, 1 is the bulk and shear moduli of the initial host material, which is a function of the rocks mineralogy, in our case dolomite or calcite, and K2, 2 is the bulk and shear moduli of the inclusions, which is defined by the fluid saturation of the pores. The geometrical coefficients P and Q depend on the aspect ratio of the elliptical pores (Berryman, 1980). One of the key aspects of our approach is that macropores are significantly stiffer than micropores. The macropores can be mathematically modeled by average high aspect ratio pores and the micropores with average low aspect ratio pores. The pore volumes associated to macropores and

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Modeling the effects of pore structure on velocity

A common perception is that dolomites are stiffer than limestones. Dolomites have higher velocities at zero porosity than limestones, but in our dataset samples of both lithologies can show a wide range of velocities at given porosity, depending on the pore type. For example, a sucrosic dolostone with small intercrystalline pores displays a lower velocity than a recrystallized intercrystalline-vuggy dolostone with similar porosity. Likewise limestones dominated by micropores are slow while limestones with interparticle vuggy and moldic porosity show higher velocities at similar porosity. Furthermore, the dolostones and limestones do not show a distinct pattern in the Vp/Vs-porosity space, thus the Vp/Vs appears to be independent of the mineral type. We conclude that at high porosity the texture of the rock seems to override the effect of mineralogy of the frame. Poissons ratio The Poissons ratio can be derived from the Vp2/Vs2 ratio using following equation, (Mavko et al., 1998): = 0.5((Vp^2 / Vs^2) 2) / ((Vp^2/Vs^2) -1) where is the Poisson ratio, Vp = p-wave velocity and Vs = s-wave velocity. The correlation between Vp2/Vs2 is better under dry conditions (r2 > 0.92) than under water-saturated conditions (r2 > 0.81). Using dry Vp2/Vs2 ratio we derived average limestone and dolostone Poissons ratios of 0.261 and 0.275, respectively. The extracted water saturated Poissons ratio of limestone and dolostone are 0.304 and 0.307, respectively. The mineralogy obviously influences the average Poisson ratio less than the fluid type in the pores. Effects of aspect ratio and pore size on velocity Macropores can physically be described as near-spherical ellipsoidal inclusions in the rock. Stiff pores are mathematically described with a high aspect ratio. This does not imply that all macropores show a near-spherical pore shape. In fact, dominant pore types range from intraparticle, intercrystalline, moldic to vuggy porosity, resulting in a range of complex pore shape geometries. In this study we characterize the macro-pore shape by the aspect ratio of pore-surrounding ellipsoid. For the entire sample dataset the aspect ratio varies only insignificantly, between 0.5 and 0.6 with a mean value of ~ 0.55. This narrow range of pore aspect ratio is in agreement with other carbonate image analysis study results (Rossebo et al., 2006 and Colpaert et al., 2007). Consequently the change in aspect ratio can not account for the large scatter of velocity at given porosities. In contrast, the percentage of microporosity influences the velocity drastically. In the velocity porosity space, samples with high percentage of microporosity are generally slower than rocks with similar porosity but more macroporosity, indicating that microporosity is more compliant than the stiff macroporosity (Fig. 1a). In addition, when macroporosity is subtracted from the total porosity, the remaining microporosity shows a decent correlation to velocity (Fig. 1b). This indicates that much of the macroporosity is ineffective for the acoustic behavior at least at ultrasonic frequencies.
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Figure 1: (a) Plot of porosity versus p-wave velocity. Velocity at given porosity decreases with increasing amount of microporosity (percentage microporosity in color coding). (b) Plot microporosity versus p-wave velocity Table 1: This caption is placed outside the frame and is followed by a page break.

Forward modeling As described above, we select aspect ratios of two endmember pore types: small soft pores with aspect ratio of <0.01 and near-spherical pores with aspect ratios of 0.5. Then we try to minimize the root mean square error (RMSE) between measured and predicted p-wave and swave velocity. In order to quantify the quality of the best

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fit, we calculate the RMSE of predicted and measured values. We also calculate the R-Square value to evaluate the correlation between predicted and measured values. It is important to note that in our model the only variable is the aspect ratios (AR) of the microporosity whereas the AR of the macroporosity is kept at 0.5 (Fig. 2). Thus, in the following text, the AR is referring to the average aspect ratio assigned to the micropores. For example the RMSE is optimized at the smallest error value in estimating p-wave velocity of water saturated samples, it decreases for the samples measured under dry conditions from a value of 0.457 with an AR of 0.085 to a RMSE of 0.392 at an AR of 0.1. With higher AR (0.15) the RMSE increases again to 0.439 (Fig. 3). The correlation coefficient R-Square between experimentally measured p-wave velocity and predicted p-wave velocity is also highest (r2 = 0.86) at a microporosity AR of 0.1. In contrast the RMSE of the swave velocity is decreasing with decreasing AR, e.g. AR of 0.15 of microporosity shows a RMSE of 0.355 and it decrease to a RMSE of 0.227 at an AR of 0.085 (Fig. 3). In summary, an aspect ratio of 0.1 for the microporosity and an aspect ratio of 0.5 for macroporosity to represent the best the elastic properties in the water saturated samples. The best-fit aspect ratio of the micropores is higher (AR = 0.12) in the dry samples, than in the in samples measured under water-saturated conditions (AR = 0.1). Using this dual porosity DEM mode, both the R-Square correlation coefficient and the RMSE give a much better fit between measured and predicted velocity. Using a single fit aspect ratio the correlation coefficient would have an r2 of 0.733, compared to 0.859 derived from our dual porosity fitting model. Likewise the RMSE of the p-wave velocity is improved to 0.392 in our dual porosity model from 0.485 using a single fit aspect ratio. The s-wave velocity reveals even a more significant improvement in correlation coefficient from 0.815 (single aspect ratio) to 0.654 using dual-porosity model. We attribute the good fit between experimental and modeled velocity to the fact the we incorporated quantitative pore size and pore structure information that are measured on digital images from thin sections of the same plug. Conclusion Digital image analysis of the pore structure in the investigated carbonates shows that the aspect ratio of the macropores varies little and is approximately 0.5. The amount of microporosity is very influential on the sonic velocity of these carbonates. Thus, a model that captures both macro-and microporosity as well as their respective percentage is needed to better estimate velocity. We use a differential effective medium (DEM) model with a dual porosity approach and incorporate macro- and microporosity values derived from quantitative image analysis. Our approach of taking into accounts the pore size and the ratio between micro and macropores, results in a improved velocity prediction. The velocity predictions are better than a single parameter DEM model. We conclude that compliant micropores have strong effect on the velocity of the rock. By subtracting the macroporosity from total porosity the scatter in a velocity porosity relationship can be reduced. Our dual porosity model can potentially help estimate the respective amounts of macro- and microporosity. This estimation of the pore size could improve reservoir quality prediction.
7 AR micro= 0.1 AR macro= 0.5 6

vs & vp modeled (km/s)

3 4 VS & VP measured (km/s)

Figure 2: Plot of experimentally measured Vp and Vs versus predicted Vp and Vs from thin section analysis. Comparing the differential effective medium model prediction of Vp and experimentally derived Vp, we obtain an exceptional root mean square error of 392 m/s.

1 R-Square 0.8 0.6 0.4 RMSE

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Fig. 3 : RMSE and R-square of measured vs predicted pwave velocity and s-wave velocity. The different modeling results are derived by applying a DEM model with macroporosity of aspect ratio 0.5 and different conceptional aspect ratios of microporosity.

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EDITED REFERENCES Note: This reference list is a copy-edited version of the reference list submitted by the author. Reference lists for the 2007 SEG Technical Program Expanded Abstracts have been copy edited so that references provided with the online metadata for each paper will achieve a high degree of linking to cited sources that appear on the Web. REFERENCES Anselmetti, F. S., and G. P. Eberli, 1993, Controls on sonic velocity in carbonates: Pure and Applied Geophysics, 141, 287. , 1997, Sonic velocity in carbonate sediments and rocks: Carbonate seismology: Geophysical Development Series, 6, 53. Baechle, G. T., R. Weger, G. P. Eberli, and J. L. Massaferro, 2004, The role of macroporosity and microporosity in constraining uncertainties and in relating velocity to permeability in carbonate rocks: 74th Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 23, 1662. Berryman, J., 1995, Mixture theories for rock properties, in T. J. Ahrens, ed., Handbook of physical constants: American Geophysical Union, 205228. Berryman, J. G., 1980, Long-wavelength propagation in composite elastic media: Journal of the Acoustic Society of America, 68, 18091831. Brie, A., 2001, A micro-structural model for compressional and shear slowness interpretation in carbonates: Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts, 42nd Annual Logging Symposium. Colpaert, A., 2007, Geophysical characterization of Carboniferous-Permian carbonate platforms in the Barent Sea based on 3Dseismic data analysis and rock physics modelling: Ph.D. dissertation, University of Tromso. Goldberg, I. A. B. G., 1998, A semi-empirical velocity-porosity-clay model for petrophysical interpretation of P- and Svelocities: Geophysical Prospecting, 46, 271285. Hamilton, E. L., G. Shumway, H. W. Menard, and C. J. Shipek, 1956, Acoustic and other physical properties of shallow-water sediments off San Diego: Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 28, 115. Kazatchenko, E., M. Markov, and A. Mousatov, 2004, Joint inversion of acoustic and resistivity data for carbonate microstructure evaluation: Petrophysics, 45, 130140. Kumar, M., and D. H. Han, 2005, Pore shape effect on elastic properties of carbonate rocks: 75th Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 24, 14771480. Markov, M., V. Levine, A. Mousatov, and E. Kazatchenko, 2005, Elastic properties of double-porosity rocks using the differential effective medium model: Geophysical Prospecting, 53, 733754. Mavko, G., T. Mukerji, and J. Dvorkin, 1998, The rock physics handbook - tools for seismic analysis in porous media: Cambridge University Press. Rossebo, O. H., I. Brevik, G. R. Ahmadi, and L. Adam, 2005, Modeling of acoustic properties in carbonate rocks: 75th Annual International Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 24, 15051508. Sun, Y. F., and D. Goldberg, 1997, Estimation of aspect-ratio changes with pressure from seismic velocities: Geological Society Special Publication, 131. Wang, Z. Z., 2001, Fundamentals of seismic rock physics: Geophysics, 66, 398412. Xu, S., and R. E. White, 1995, A new velocity model for clay-sand mixtures: Geophysical Prospecting, 43, 91. Yan, J., X. Y. Li, and E. Liu, 2002, Effects of pore aspect ratios on velocity prediction from well-log data: Geophysical Prospecting, 50, 289300. Zimmerman, R. W., 1991, Compressibility of sandstones: Elsevier.

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