Analyzing Full Micro-CT Image of a Berea Sandstone Mini Plug and the Associated Challenges

Arash Aghaei - Thermo Fisher Scientific - Thermo Fisher Scientific

X-ray micro-CT imaging is becoming an integral part of rock characterization processes. Large data size, user bias, and accuracy of the results are some of the challenges associated with analyzing micro-CT images of rock samples.

In this article, the PerGeos Digital Rock Analysis software is demonstrated to analyze the full micro-CT dataset of a Berea sandstone mini plug. The analysis is done in blocks using a PerGeos recipe (i.e. a macro) and a block-processing script. The results are then merged together to form a whole analyzed image. To remove user bias from the analysis, the semi-automated watershed technique is used for segmentation. To improve the accuracy of the results the pore-grain boundaries are selected and removed from the seeds image before applying the watershed segmentation transform. The results of segmentation are demonstrated in the document. The porosity of the sample is calculated to be 20.5 %.

How PerGeos is used

A PerGeos recipe (i.e. a macro) and a block-processing script are used to analyze the whole data in a block-by-block fashion. The recipe is created based on a subset of data and has the set of instructions that are used to generate the end result. The script divides the dataset into a number of blocks defined by the user and applies the recipe on each block. The results from all the blocks are merged together to construct a whole analyzed image.