Application of X-Ray Tomography to Measurement of Fractures in Rocks
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- The aim of this research was to identify and characterize the small fractures in geothermal rocks using the X-Ray CT scanner. Geothermal rocks typically have small porosity and a large number of tiny fractures scattered in a dense rock matrix. The small fractures are difficult to measure accurately by CT imaging when their aperture is of the order of or even smaller than the CT scanner's resolution. Previous research in the area of fracture calibration using CT imaging was focused on artificial fractures with apertures larger than the CT resolution or fractures existing in rock lighter and more homogeneous than geothermal rock.In this research we focused on the detection and calibration of natural fractures in samples of Geysers core. We investigated the basic theory of the CT technique. Previous results in the area of CT measurement were enhanced by incorporating image-processing techniques for image enhancement and natural fracture detection. We proposed a systematic procedure for fracture identification, fracture aperture calibration and saturation calculation in an identified fracture region. Specifically, we used edge detection methods to obtain the edge map, the Hough transform to estimate the fracture orientation, and the Active Contour approach to refine the edge map and to determine a well-connected fracture region. The detection quality of the fractured region was significantly improved.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Date created | June 1998 |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | He, Meiqing |
|---|---|
| Primary advisor | Horne, Roland N. |
| Degree granting institution | Stanford University, Department of Petroleum Engineering |
Subjects
| Subject | School of Earth Energy & Environmental Sciences |
|---|---|
| Genre | Thesis |
Bibliographic information
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Preferred citation
- Preferred Citation
- He, Meiqing. (1998). Application of X-Ray Tomography to Measurement of Fractures in Rocks. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/hw205zp5227
Collection
Master's Theses, Doerr School of Sustainability
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