Permeability and conductivity for reconstruction models of porous media

The purpose of this paper is to examine representative examples of realistic three-dimensional models for porous media by comparing their geometrical and transport properties with those of the original experimental specimen. The comparison is based on numerically exact evaluations of permeability, formation factor, porosity, specific internal surface, mean curvature, Euler number, local porosity distributions, and local percolation probabilities. The experimental specimen is a three-dimensional computer tomographic image of Fontainebleau sandstone. The three models are examples of physical and stochastic reconstructions for which many of the geometrical characteristics coincide with those of the experimental specimen. We find that in spite of the similarity in the geometrical properties the permeability and formation factor can differ greatly between models and experiment. Our results seem to indicate that the truncation of correlations is responsible for some of these observed discrepancies. A physical reconstruction model by Bakke and Øren SPEJ 2, 136 (1997) based on sedimentation, compaction and diagenesis of sandstones yields surprisingly accurate predictions for permeability and conductivity. These findings imply that many of the presently used geometric descriptors of porous media are insufficient for the prediction of transport.