A combination dielectric and acoustic laboratory instrument for petrophysics

Laboratory testing of rock samples is the primary method for establishing the physics models which relate the rock properties (i.e. porosity, fluid permeability, pore-fluid and saturation) essential to evaluating a hydrocarbon reservoir, to the physical properties (resistivity, nuclear magnetic resonance, dielectric permittivity and acoustic properties) which can be measured with borehole logging instrumentation. Rock samples usually require machining to produce a suitable geometry for each test as well as specific sample preparation, e.g. multiple levels of saturation and chemical treatments, and this leads to discrepancies in the condition of the sample between different tests. Ideally, multiphysics testing should occur on one sample simultaneously so that useful correlations between data sets can be more firmly established. The world's first dielectric and acoustic combination cell has been developed at CSIRO, so that a sample may be machined and prepared, then measured to determine the dielectric and acoustic properties simultaneously before atmospheric conditions in the laboratory affect the level of hydration in the sample. The dielectric measurement is performed using a conventional three-terminal parallel plate capacitor which can operate from 40 Hz up to 110 MHz, with modified electrodes incorporating a 4 MHz P-wave piezo crystal. Approximately 10 (acoustic P-) wavelengths interact with a typical (10 mm thick) sample so that the user may reliably 'pick' the P-wave arrival times with acceptable resolution. Experimental evidence indicates that the instrument is able to resolve 0.25 mm thickness in a Teflon sample test piece. For a number of engineering materials including Teflon and glass and also for a geological samples (Donnybrook sandstone from Western Australia) there is a perfectly linear relationship between both capacitance and P-wave arrival time with sample thickness. Donnybrook sandstone has a consistently linear increase in dielectric permittivity and P-wave velocity with saturation consistent with the Gassmann–Hill prediction. Both the dielectric permittivity and P-wave velocity are faster parallel to the bedding plane than orthogonal to the bedding plane in a shale from the Cooper Basin, Australia.