Characterisation of the Physical Properties of Porous Media Using Monochrome Imaging

摘要

An optical method of non-destructive analysis of grain and pore size distribution and porosity of rock samples at the well site during drilling has been developed. The oblique coherent incoherent light is used to produce four monochrome images of a sample's surface taken with illumination from different directions. Processing of the intensity distributions of the images allows separation of information about grain sizes from pore sizes and provides a binary image of the porous surface. Digital image processing is then applied, to identify and delineate grains and pores and produce statistical distributions to characterise the porous surface viz. pore and grain size distributions and porosity.