Relationship between Coal Reservoir Permeability and Fractal Dimension and Its Significance

Permeability of coal reservoir is one of important parameters for coal bed methane (CBM) development. Because of strong heterogeneity of coal reservoir, ascertaining permeability distribution is critical to productivity prediction of CBM. Based on Darcy´s law and fractal geometry, the regression analysis is carried out between the permeability and the fractal dimension measured from the samples. The results show that the relation between coal reservoir permeability and fractal dimension is positive correlation. Moreover, the correlation degree of permeability in the horizontal bedding is obviously higher than vertical bedding, which provides experimental support for coal reservoir permeability estimation with the fractal dimension.