Reconstruction of a digital core containing clay minerals based on a clustering algorithm

Area of Science:

• Geoscience
• Petroleum Engineering
• Computational Modeling

Background:

• Obtaining core samples and detailed information for digital core reconstruction of mature sandstone reservoirs, particularly unconsolidated ones, is challenging.
• Accurate reconstruction and division of clay minerals are crucial for digital core models but remain a research hurdle.
• Existing two-dimensional data-based methods have limitations in capturing complex clay microstructures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an improved method for digital core reconstruction of sandstone reservoirs, focusing on accurate modeling of clay minerals.
• To address the challenges in reconstructing diverse clay mineral types, textures, and distributions within digital core models.
• To provide an alternative simulation method for clay minerals in digital cores.

Main Methods:

• A hybrid approach was employed, considering clay mineral content based on two-dimensional reservoir data.
• The Hoshen-Kopelman algorithm was utilized to label connected clay clusters.
• The K-means clustering algorithm was applied to segment labeled clusters based on their characteristics for detailed reconstruction.

Main Results:

• The hybrid method successfully generated digital cores with clay clusters, showing similar statistics and geometry to reference models.
• The Hoshen-Kopelman algorithm effectively labeled and quantified clay clusters by number and size.
• The K-means algorithm facilitated the division of large clusters, leading to a more accurate representation of clay mineral distributions and textures.

Conclusions:

• The developed clustering algorithm significantly improves digital core reconstruction accuracy for sandstone reservoirs.
• This method offers a viable alternative for simulating various clay minerals and their complex structures in digital core models.
• The findings contribute to more realistic microstructural reservoir simulations, especially for challenging unconsolidated sandstone formations.