Scaling laws in network models: porous medium property prediction during morphological evolution

A 3-D network model was used to represent a porous medium and the macroscopic properties of the network (like permeability) were simulated by Monte Carlo method. It was shown that these macroscopic properties can be related to network parameters (throat-size distribution parameters, network size and connectivity) through power law correlations, as can be inferred from percolation theory. In this way, macroscopic properties evaluation during the morphological evolution of a 3-D network requires less computational effort, which facilitates the incorporation of this model into oil flow simulators.