An Irregular Lattice Pore Network Model Construction Algorithm

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Pore network modeling uses a network of pores connected by throats to model the void space of a porous medium and tries to predict its various characteristics during multiphase flow of various fluids. In most cases, a non-realistic regular lattice of pores is used to model the characteristics of a porous medium. Although some methodologies for extracting geologically realistic irregular networks from pore space images have been presented, these methods require some experimental data which are either unavailable or costly to obtain. 3-dimensional image or 2-dimensional SEM images are among these types of data. In this paper a new irregular lattice algorithm for the construction of these models is proposed. Furthermore, based on some statistical and analytical studies, a fast and reliable procedure is suggested to find the optimum system parameters which may lead to the construction of the smallest cubic irregular pore network model that can be a representative of the target porous medium. The performance of the proposed method has been studied through the construction of an irregular lattice model representing a core plug based on its available experimental data. This study shows that the obtained model can reliably predict the network construction parameters.