Textural control on the quadrature conductivity of porous media

Qifei Niu, Manika Prasad, André Revil, Milad Saidian

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

31 Scopus citations

Abstract

Induced polarization (IP) has been broadly used for environmental and hydrogeological applications and in civil engineering. The IP response of a porous medium without metallic particles (described by its quadrature conductivity or its normalized chargeability) is controlled by the interfacial electrochemistry of the electrical double layer and the pore-space geometry. We use the specific surface per unit pore volume normalized by the formation factor (i.e., Spor/F) as the controlling textural parameter for the quadrature conductivity. This relationship is obtained by averaging the surface conductance over the pore volume. A database that contains 76 samples (including porous borosilicate glass, sandstones, and clayey sediments) is used to check the new scaling. In addition to these data, we have conducted new IP measurements on 13 samples from the Middle Bakken Formation corresponding to low-porosity clayey materials. Comparison between the experimental data and our model confirms that the ratio Spor/F is the dominant textural parameter describing the quadrature conductivity s σ of a broad range of porous media. The database was also used to test whether the quadrature conductivity depended either on Spor, or the specific surface area Sm, or the ratio Sm/(FΦ) (Φ being the connected porosity). Although the quadrature conductivity scales with Spor and Sm for high-porosity sandstones, these relationships are not appropriate for the low-porosity clayey materials presented in this study. However, experimental data support the dependence of the quadrature conductivity on Sm/(FΦ), a published relationship obtained through the volume averaging approach.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)E297-E309
JournalGeophysics
Volume81
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Sep 2016

Keywords

  • induced polarization
  • low frequency
  • resistivity
  • rock physics

EGS Disciplines

  • Earth Sciences

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