Petrophysical properties and network models of gas-bearing reservoir rocks. Annual report, October 1, 1987-November 30, 1988. Technical report

Studies of the effect of clay on acoustic velocities in shaley sandstones indicate that clay's influence on rock properties is dominated by its structural position, either as a pore-filling constituent or an integral part of the framework. The authors proposed an isostrain relation to explain the influence of clay on acoustic velocity. A new image-analysis algorithm, called Cederberg-Sobel scanning, was developed to define the connected pathways for fluid flow from a thin section or for geological-feature classification. Connected or isolated features of a 2-D image are extracted within a single scanning pass. Image heterogeneity is transformed into a network and the data are coded into a matrix of nodes, connections and quality of connections. An experimental apparatus has been designed and built to measure the acoustic velocity and attenuation anisotropy in rock.