Understanding elastic properties and acoustic anisotropy at the pore/grain scale

This paper focuses on two main aspects of reservoir rock characterisation. The first is the use of imaging techniques including optical microscopy, scanning electron microscope (SEM), 3D X-ray computer tomography (CT) and image processing software to evaluate grain orientations and grain contact information for real and model rock samples. We investigate this data for various types of directional behaviour, and look for correlations between anisotropy of the sample fabric and that of seismic velocities. Secondly, we apply Finite Element Methods (FEM) to our processed 3D images of samples in order to calculate elastic constants and hence acoustic velocity behaviour of reservoir rock. Finally, we combine these two techniques and coupled petrographical/geological information, to correlate data from the simulation of elastic properties of the reservoir rock to obtain more reliable predictive behaviour.