oa Towards a Representative Rock Model from a Micro-CT Image

Digital rock physics combines modern imaging with advanced numerical simulations to analyze the physical properties of rocks. However, it remains difficult to resolve microstructures on submicrometer scale and image a representative volume at the same time, which is essential to understand the elastic properties of rocks. This leads to a mismatch between laboratory measurements and digital rock physics estimates. In this paper we suggest the usage of digital rock physics templates as recipe to obtain accurate numerical predictions. In those templates optimized pressure-dependent elastic properties are given for each phase of a rock identified on a micro-CT image. For one Berea sandstone sample we describe such a template by using a laboratory-based calibration technique.