Archie's Law in Sandy Microstructures

P. Mohammadmoradi [1], A. Kantzas [1],
[1] University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
Published in 2017

COMSOL Multiphysics® is used to simulate electric currents in pore-level unconsolidated and consolidated packings of spherical grains. In a nutshell 1) Predefined particle size distribution curves and porosities are used to reconstruct unconsolidated packings; 2) A modified image dilation technique is applied to mimic the cementation process and consolidate the media; 3) A pixel-wised pore morphological approach is utilized to predict the two-phase fluid occupancies during drainage and imbibition at low capillary numbers; 4) Stationary finite element simulations are conducted in partially saturated microstructures to provide the electrical conductivity predictions; and 5) The post-processing results present the ad hoc parameters of Archie’s law.