Influence mechanism of pore-scale anisotropy and pore distribution heterogeneity on permeability of porous media

Based on micro-CT scanning experiments, three-dimensional digital cores of tight sandstones were established to quantitatively evaluate pore-scale anisotropy and pore-distribution heterogeneity. The quartet structure generation set method was used to generate three-dimensional anisotropic, heterogeneous porous media models. A multi-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann model was applied to analyze relationships of permeability with pore-scale anisotropy and pore distribution heterogeneity, and the microscopic influence mechanism was also investigated. The tight sandstones are of complex pore morphology, strong anisotropy and pore distribution heterogeneity, while anisotropy factor has obvious directivity. The obvious anisotropy influences the orientation of long axis of pores and fluid flow path, making tortuosity smaller and flowing energy loss less in the direction with the greater anisotropy factor. The strong correlation of tortuosity and anisotropy is the inherent reason of anisotropy acting on permeability. The influence of pore distribution heterogeneity on permeability is the combined effects of specific surface area and tortuosity, while the product of specific surface area and tortuosity shows significantly negative correlation with heterogeneity. The stronger the pore distribution heterogeneity, the smaller the product and the greater the permeability. In addition, the permeability and tortuosity of complex porous media satisfy a power relation with a high fitting precision, which can be applied for approximate estimation of core permeability.