PNIPU: Virtual laboratory for digital analysis of rocks

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2022: Creating a virtual laboratory for digital physical modeling

The press service of the Perm Polytechnic announced on June 10, 2022, the creation by scientists of a virtual laboratory for digital physical modeling, which can reduce the time and cost of research.

Many decisions in are oil and gas industries made based on detailed information about the multiphase flow - a multicomponent mixture of water, salts, and gas oil mechanical impurities - in the porous rocks of the formation. This also applies to oil fields assessing their productivity, development and organization. As of June 2022, physical laboratory tests of one rock sample take several months and require high costs. In this regard, this laboratory will increase the number and speed of experiments, will allow to obtain more high-quality data for making key decisions in the design, regulation of development and selection of methods for improving oil recovery.

The study also involved scientists from the Chinese Petroleum University (East China).

Enhanced oil recovery methods for mature fields are costly and can be associated with high risks of technology failure. Success in this case largely depends on the ability of the selected method to extract and transport oil from pores of various sizes.

Fragile, easily collapsible samples, long analysis time, uncertain results - all this puts productivity improvements, efficient use of resources and the realization of asset potential at risk, told Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor of the Department of Oil and Gas Technologies Dmitry Martyushev.

The virtual laboratory of the Perm Polytechnic is based on X-ray computed tomography of real rocks and a series of generated digital cores of varying degrees of destruction. By creating and analyzing digital twins, the laboratory can eliminate the listed shortcomings, as well as obtain better data using smaller samples. In addition, research costs and time will be reduced, and engineers will be able to make more informed decisions thanks to more data. It will also be possible to reuse digital samples to simulate all kinds of scenarios and conditions. So, if a core of real rock can be used only once, then working with its digital twin can be multiple. All this can increase the potential of methods for increasing oil recovery.