Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105

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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/petrol

Investigating NMR-based absolute and relative permeability models of

sandstone using digital rock techniques
Weichao Yan a, b, Jianmeng Sun a, b, *, Huaimin Dong a, b, Likai Cui c
a
Key Laboratory of Deep Oil and Gas, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China
b
School of Geosciences, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China
c
Institute of Unconventional Oil and Gas, Northeast Petroleum University, Daqing, 163318, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Absolute permeability determines fluid production capacity, and relative permeability determines the produced
Absolute permeability fluid types, and their accurate calculations are critical for evaluating hydrocarbon-bearing formations. In oil/gas
Relative permeability fields, the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging tool has been widely used due to its unique advantage of
Digital rock
directly detecting the rock pores. However, this tool cannot measure absolute permeability or relative perme­
Nuclear magnetic resonance
Fractal
ability directly. There exist many approaches for estimating NMR-based permeabilities, but most of them lack the
basic understandings of fluid flow characteristics in micro-pores. To investigate NMR-based absolute and relative
permeability models of sandstone, we suggest three types of pores, i.e., non-flowing bound water pores, slow-
flowing free water pores, and fast-flowing free water pores, and incorporate them into the permeability calcu­
lations. The digital rock technique was utilized to study fluid flow mechanisms. Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM)
was applied on two constructed three-dimensional digital rocks to calculate fluid flow velocity field distributions
and absolute permeabilities. From the fluid flow simulation results, it was found that bound water exists not only
in small pores but also in medium-sized pores and big pores. By comparing the permeability values of digital
rocks with various porosities, we demonstrated that fast-flowing free water pores have the highest contribution
to absolute permeability. Five relative permeability calculation models were investigated, where we found that
the best link between the T2 spectrum and relative permeability curve was the pore size distribution index. The
obtained results indicated that the traditional Coates model combined with the spectral bulk volume irreducible
method and the Brooks-Corey model are high-precision models for calculating the NMR-based absolute and
relative permeabilities in sandstone reservoirs.

1. Introduction
Subsurface flow properties have been deeply studied in the fields of
groundwater and petroleum productions. Among the flow properties,
absolute permeability (Mostaghimi et al., 2013; Konno et al., 2015;
Yasin et al., 2019; Qing et al., 2021) and relative permeability (Reynolds
et al., 2004; Shen et al., 2019) are critical parameters for characterizing
the macro-properties of porous media. Absolute permeability is an
intrinsic characteristic of the rock sample, which reflects the ability to
transmit fluids through pores, and it also determines fluid production
capacity. In multi-phase fluid flow systems, relative permeability de­
scribes the conductivity of one fluid phase at a specified saturation
condition. If the formation saturation and its relative permeability
curves of different fluid phases are determined, it will be simple to tell
the types of the produced fluids. In the laboratory, such parameters of a
rock sample can be acquired directly by measuring the (inlet and outlet)
pressures and (injected and expelled) fluid volumes. However, in oil/gas
fields, it is impossible to measure these parameters directly by using well
logging tools. Hence, engineers usually apply some well-established
empirical equations to estimate absolute permeability or relative
permeability from the logging data. Although the resistivity logging
technique is the most frequently used tool, it has high accuracy in
interpreting saturation rather than permeability because of the effect of
the conductive rock matrix. Theoretically, in an exploratory well, both
the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) logging and neutron logging can
detect pore fluids directly to calculate porosity easily. Compared with
neutron logging, NMR logging has its unique capability of calculating
pore size distribution (Yan et al., 2020; Golsanami et al., 2019).

* Corresponding author. Key Laboratory of Deep Oil and Gas, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, 266580, China.
E-mail address: sunjm@upc.edu.cn (J. Sun).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.petrol.2021.109105
Received 8 March 2021; Received in revised form 29 May 2021; Accepted 13 June 2021
Available online 17 June 2021
0920-4105/© 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
W. Yan et al.
Permeability can be estimated from pore size distribution. Therefore,
NMR logging has been widely used in calculating absolute and relative
permeabilities at different depths of the reservoirs.
In the mid-nineteenth century, by combining the experimental re­
sults and mathematical analyses, Darcy (1856) first developed an
equation to describe the one-phase fluid flow mechanism in porous
media, which was called Darcy’s Law. Nowadays, the theory of standard
laboratory measurement of a conventional rock’s absolute permeability
is still based on Darcy’s Law. For the well logging interpretations, it is
difficult to use Darcy’s Law to calculate absolute permeability because
the equation’s parameters are hard to acquire from the logging data. To
achieve the estimation of continuous permeability values of a borehole,
lots of models are developed. Kozeny-Carman equation (Carman, 1937)
states that absolute permeability is related to the porosity and
surface-volume ratio. Although it is easy to estimate porosity value from
well logging data, other parameters are difficult to acquire. Herron
(1987) believed the accuracy of absolute permeability could be
improved by taking the mineral fractions into consideration. The pre­
dicted permeability results were encouraging, but mineral fractions can
only be obtained accurately by geochemical well logging data. Dziuba
(1996) constructed an empirical equation by introducing both the irre­
ducible water saturation and formation factor, but both the mercury
injection experiment and resistivity experiment were needed to get the
parameters. Xu et al. (2005) developed a permeability calculation
equation based on borehole micro-resistivity image logging data, which
was more suitable in estimating permeabilities of vuggy carbonate res­
ervoirs. Nevertheless, permeability is a rock property related to the pore
size, and the pore size can be calculated directly by NMR logging data
(Golsanami et al., 2016; Yan et al., 2019). Therefore, NMR logging has
great advantages in calculating absolute permeability. The most
commonly used NMR-based models are the Coates model (Coates and
Dumanoir, 1991) and Schlumberger-Doll Research (SDR) model (Ken­
yon, 1997). The Coates model shows that the permeability of a porous
medium has a positive relationship with the ratio of free fluid volume to
bound fluid volume, which is a modified form of the Timur permeability
equation (Timur, 1968). SDR model illustrates the relationship between
permeability and the geometric mean of NMR relaxation time. Since
then, a growing number of approaches for estimating NMR-based per­
meabilities have emerged (Xiao and Zhang, 2008; Li et al., 2010; Tan
et al., 2015; Ge et al., 2017; Peng et al., 2019; Lucas-Oliveira et al.,
2020). Most of these models are the modified Coates model or SDR
models. For example, Ge et al. (2017) divided the pore space of bio­
clastic limestone into four parts and put forward an improved perme­
ability model based on the fundamentals of the Coates model. However,
these NMR-based permeability models focus more on improving the
accuracy of the calculated permeability by adjusting the equation’s form
rather than comprehending and incorporating the basic fluid flow
characteristics in micro-pores.
The relative permeability is a macroscopic parameter of the fluid in
pore space, which describes the permeability of one fluid in the presence
of another. There are two experimental approaches of measuring rela­
tive permeability, including the steady-state method and the unsteady-
state method (Kianinejad et al., 2016). The steady-state relative
permeability experiment is still based on Darcy’s equation. Fixed frac­
tional multiphase fluids are injected into a rock, and the flow pressure
difference and flow rate are measured when fluid saturation in the rock
remains constant. The unsteady-state relative permeability experiment
is based on the Buckley-Leverett theory (Buckley and Leverett, 1942). In
this experiment, one type of fluid is gradually injected into a rock
saturated with a different type of fluid, and the saturation profile
changes with time. Similar to the absolute permeability methods, these
experimental approaches are impossible to be applied in well logging
interpretation. Absolute permeability is mainly controlled by pore size,
but relative permeability is influenced by many factors, such as wetta­
bility (Beltrán et al., 2019), fluid types (Zhang et al., 2018), temperature
(Esmaeili et al., 2020), pore sizes (Yin et al., 2020), etc. Therefore, the
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105
accurate prediction of relative permeability is much more difficult than
absolute permeability. Due to the advantages of the NMR technique as
discussed above, NMR logging has the ability to predict relative
permeability. However, there is no equation for calculating relative
permeability directly from the measured T2 spectrum. The relationship
between relative permeability and saturation (Kr–S) can be directly
derived from the relationship between capillary pressure and saturation
(P–S) for the idealized model. In the fast diffusion regime, the pore size
distribution of a rock can be derived from the measured T2 spectrum
(Benavides et al., 2019). Moreover, the rock’s capillary pressure curve
can be used to calculate its pore size distribution. Therefore, it is possible
to convert the T2 spectrum to relative permeability through capillary
pressure. According to the forms of relative permeability equations, the
relative permeability calculation methods can be grouped into three
categories, including integral methods, pore size distribution index
methods, and fractal methods. Integral methods are developed through
solving the computational fluid dynamics problems of constructed
capillary tube models (Purcell, 1949; Fatt and Dykstra, 1951; Burdine,
1953; Mualem, 1976; Porter, 2010). The integration of capillary pres­
sure data would be needed for adopting integral methods, but they are
often discrete values, which are difficult to calculate. Pore size distri­
bution index methods focus on the effects of pore structure character­
istics on relative permeability (Brooks and Corey, 1966; van Genuchten,
1980; DiCarlo et al., 2000; Li and Horne, 2006; Zhang et al., 2020),
which simplify the calculation process. Researchers have proved that
natural sedimentary rock has a fractal dimension, which is also a critical
parameter used to describe the pore structures. New forms of relative
permeability models can be derived by combining capillary pressure and
fractal theory (Yang et al., 2008; Li, 2010a,b; Xu et al., 2013; Zhang
et al., 2017; Liu et al., 2019). In addition, fractal methods provide simple
ways to calculate parameters in pore size distribution index methods
because the fractal dimension is also a pore parameter. Relative
permeability can be calculated from NMR data through equation
transformation by using the above models. However, further research is
needed to determine which NMR-based relative permeability model has
the highest accuracy.
The major objective of this study is to deepen the comprehension of
the NMR-based absolute and relative permeability models of sandstone.
In this paper, considering the direct contribution of fluid flow velocity to
the permeability, we suggest three types of velocity-based pores and
incorporate their impact on the calculated permeability values. For this
purpose, we first applied the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) on a
constructed three-dimensional (3D) digital rock to calculate fluid flow
velocity field distribution and absolute permeability. Herein, the spatial
distributions and T2 characteristics of three types of pores were inves­
tigated based on the simulated flow velocities. Meanwhile, the validity
of the relationship between T2 spectrum and absolute permeability was
confirmed using 26 sandstone samples collected from Beibu Gulf Basin
in China. Finally, five different relative permeability models were
analyzed, and the T2 spectrum was incorporated into the relative
permeability models.
2. Pore types classifications associated with different flow
velocities
Lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is used to calculate absolute
permeability and fluid velocity distributions. A brief description of LBM
is given in Appendix A. Before simulating petrophysical properties, the
3D digital rock model is needed (Zhu et al., 2019; Dong et al., 2020;
Golsanami et al., 2020; Tan et al., 2021). In this research, a homoge­
neous sandstone (sample S1) and a heterogeneous sandstone (sample
S2) were studied. Their sorting coefficients of T2 spectrums were 3.92
and 11.33, respectively. 3D X-ray micro-computed tomography (μCT)
experiments were performed on two sandstone rock samples using a
nanoVoxel-3000 instrument (Sanying Precision Instruments Co., Ltd) in
Northeast Petroleum University, China. All 3D visualizations in this
W. Yan et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105

Fig. 1. 3D visualizations: (a)–(b) original greyscale digital rocks of S1 and S2, respectively; (c)–(d) pore spaces of S1 and S2, respectively; (e)–(f) fluid flow velocity
field distributions of S1 and S2, respectively.

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W. Yan et al.
Fig. 2. Frequency histograms and the cumulative frequency distributions of the
simulated fluid velocities of samples S1 and S2.
paper were made by AVIZO software (FEI Visualization Sciences Group).
Sample S1 was collected from Songliao Basin in China, which had the
porosity value of 20.71% and a permeability value of 1520.18 mD. Fig. 1
(a) shows the constructed original greyscale digital rock from extracted
CT images of S1, which has 300 × 300 × 300 cubic voxels. Sample S2
was collected from Beibu Gulf Basin in China, which had the porosity
value of 18.90% and a permeability value of 2103.21 mD. Fig. 1 (b)
shows the constructed original greyscale digital rock of S2, which has
400 × 400 × 400 cubic voxels. The resolutions of the digital rocks S1 and
S2 were 2.61 μm and 10.33 μm, respectively. Fig. 1 (c) and 1 (d) show
the corresponding pore spaces of S1 and S2 (yellow component), which
have the porosities of 20.22% and 17.12%, respectively. By applying
LBM simulation, we obtained their 3D fluid flow velocity field distri­
butions, as shown in Fig. 1 (e) and 1 (f). The calculated maximum
Fig. 3. 2D slices of the 3D digital rocks: (a) pore space of S1; (b) velocities in the corresponding pores of S1; (c) pore space of S2; (d) velocities in the corresponding
pores of S2.
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105
dimensionless fluid velocity of S1 was 7.04 × 10− 5, and the minimum
dimensionless fluid velocity was 0. For a better comparison of the ve­
locity field distributions of different digital rock models, we scaled up
the simulated velocity from 0 to 255 (greyscale). Translucent red regions
represent high-velocity pores, and the blue ones represent low-velocity
pores.
Depending on the magnitude of the fluid’s flow velocity, pore space
can be divided into three categories, including non-flowing pores, slow-
flowing pores, and fast-flowing pores. The frequency histogram and the
cumulative frequency distribution of the simulated fluid velocity of
samples S1 and S2 are shown in Fig. 2. In our study, we defined pore
spaces with fluid velocities greater than 75% on the cumulative fre­
quency distribution as fast-flowing pores. The corresponding fluid ve­
locity value of S1 was 17. Therefore, the fluid velocity ranges of non-
flowing pores, slow-flowing pores, and fast-flowing pores of S1 were
[0, 1], (1, 17) and [17, 255], respectively. Similarly, the fluid velocity
ranges of non-flowing pores, slow-flowing pores, and fast-flowing pores
of S2 were [0, 1], (1, 14) and [14, 255], respectively.
2D slices of 3D digital rocks are shown in Fig. 3 to illustrate pores and
associated velocities. Fig. 3 (a) and 3 (c) are the example 2D slices of the
3D digital rocks S1 and S2, where the maximum pore radii reach 82.6
μm and 163.47 μm, respectively. The black component represents the
solid matrix, and the white component represents the pore space. Fig. 3
(b) and 3 (d) are the visualizations of the simulated velocities in the
pores, revealing a large difference of velocities in different pores. Deep
blue is the lowest velocity component and deep red indicates the fastest
velocity. The pores in red circles 1, 2 and 3 are examples of three pore
types associated with different flow velocities, representing non-flowing
pores, slow-flowing pores and fast-flowing pores, respectively.
Although small pores are associated with high fluid flow velocity, it
does not mean all the small pores are fast-flowing pores. There is no
direct relationship between the pore radius and fluid flow velocity due
to the complexity of the pore network and the presence of the tortuous
flow paths. When the rock is fully saturated with water, the no-flow
W. Yan et al.
Fig. 4. 3D visualizations: (a) bound water of S1; (b) bound water and free water of S2; (c) bound water of S1; (d) bound water and free water of S2.
pores are filled with immobile bound water, and these pores can be
called non-flowing bound water pores. The other types of pores contain
free water, and they are slow-flowing free water pores and fast-flowing
free water pores. We regarded the pore voxels with greyscale velocities
from 0 to 1 as the bound water and other pore voxels as the free water.
The 3D visualizations of bound water and free water spatial distributions
of digital rocks S1 and S2 are shown in Fig. 4. The green component
represents bound water, and the blue component represents free water.
Through the 3D visualizations, it can be seen that the bound water
appears around the pore surface, but different pores contain various
amounts of bound water. Some bound water only occupies one layer of
the pore surface, while other bound water occupies most of the pore
space. In order to show the 3D spatial distribution of free water more
intuitively, we constructed different digital rock models with segmented
greyscale velocities. Fig. 5 (a) - (d) are the examples of the models with
different velocity ranges of S1, which include [1, 255], [10, 255], [30,
255] and [60, 255]. Translucent red regions are fast-flowing free water
pores, and translucent blue regions are slow-flowing free water pores.
Moreover, completely transparent pores, which have low velocities (not
in the velocity range), are non-flowing bound water pores.
It is obvious that the 3D spatial distributions of fast-flowing free
water and slow-flowing free water are heterogeneous. Although there
are many fluid flow pathways, only a few of them contain continuous
fast-flowing free water. To quantitatively analyze the correlations be­
tween the newly classified pores and their sizes, we replaced the slow-
flowing free water pores with a solid matrix, and calculated the size of
the remaining pores by using the maximal ball algorithm (Dong and
Blunt, 2009). The volume of the solid matrix grows gradually by
increasing the lower limit value of the segmented velocity. Fig. 6 (a)
shows the pore radii of digital rock models constructed from S1 with the
velocity ranges of [0, 255], [2, 255], [4, 255], [8, 255], [12, 255] and
[17, 255]. Fig. 6 (b) shows the pore radii of digital rock models con­
structed from S2 with the velocity ranges of [0, 255], [2, 255], [4, 255],
[8, 255] and [14, 255]. Among them, the digital rocks with the velocity
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105
ranges of [0, 255] and [2255] are the “all pores model” and “effective
pores model” (eliminating bound water pores), respectively. The
maximum pore radii of S1 and S2 are 115.47 μm and 237.14 μm,
respectively. The amplitude difference in their pore size distributions
characterizes the sizes of non-flowing bound water pores, which can be
seen in the yellow-filled part of Fig. 6. The bound water exists not only in
small pores but also in big pores, especially in the medium-size pores. As
the number of slow-flowing free water pores gradually decreases, the
amplitudes of different-sized pores decrease as well. For sample S1, it is
unexpected that fast-flowing free water does not exist in pores bigger
than 56.23 μm, but exists in both medium-size pores and small pores. For
sample S2, fast-flowing free water does not exist in pores bigger than
165.48 μm. These figures reveal the characteristics of three types of
pores associated with different flow velocities very well.
3. Relationship between T2 spectrum and absolute permeability
The absolute permeability is mainly controlled by the pore size; and
the T2 spectrum has a positive relationship with the pore size. Therefore,
the rock sample’s pore size is the background link between the T2
spectrum and the absolute permeability. The most widely used pore-
typing methods are based on the pore size distribution (Wang et al.,
2019; Qiao et al., 2020; Khurpade et al., 2021; Golsanami et al., 2021;
He et al., 2021). For instance, Khurpade et al. (2021) divided pores of a
heterogeneous petroleum reservoir into four classes, namely, macro­
pores (>10 μm), mesopores (10–1 μm), micropores II (1–0.1 μm), and
micropores I (<0.1 μm). However, the pore size-based classification
method does not illustrate the fluid flow properties. The pore size dis­
tribution can be calculated by NMR measurements, but the movable
water pores and bound water pores are separated by one cut-off value on
the T2 spectrum. Bound water can also exist in pores that have the T2
values bigger than the cut-off value. Compared with the pore size-based
classification method, our velocity-based method provides more infor­
mation about the fluid flow capacities of the pores. In order to reveal the
W. Yan et al.
Fig. 5. Different digital rock models with the segmented greyscale velocities: (a) [1, 255]; (b) [10, 255]; (c) [30, 255]; (d) [60, 255].
influence of different types of pores on absolute permeability, the LBM
was used to simulate the permeabilities of the binarized 3D digital rock
models constructed in Fig. 6. Pore voxels falling into the velocity range
remained constant, while voxels outside the velocity range were
replaced with solid matrix voxels. The relationships between the
calculated porosities and permeabilities of different digital rock models
are shown in Fig. 7.
It can be seen that both porosity and permeability of a digital rock
model decrease as slow-flowing free water pores are removed. The
porosity-permeability curve can be divided into two parts. At first, as the
non-flowing bound water pores and slow-flowing free water pores are
gradually replaced by solid matrix, the digital rock model’s permeability
value decreases slowly. It means that bound water pores and slow-
flowing free water pores have less impact on absolute permeability.
When porosity drops below a certain value (9.59% for S1, and 8.81% for
S2), the permeability decreases significantly, which is partly caused by
the reduced connectivity. It is noteworthy that even if the porosity of the
digital rock model (constructed from S1) is reduced to 4.86%, which
belongs to the category of low-porosity rock, the permeability can still
reach 466.76 mD. This finding is significant because most of the natural
and artificial low-porosity rocks without fractures have permeabilities
less than 100.0 mD (Zhang et al., 2021). It proves that the fast-flowing
free water pores contribute significantly to the absolute permeability.
According to the pore radii of various digital rock models in Fig. 6, we
can see that the most fast-flowing free water exists in medium-size pores,
and these pores contribute greatly to the total absolute permeability. Big
pores mainly contain slow-flowing free water, which has a limited in­
fluence on permeability. Therefore, the higher proportion of pores
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Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105
occupied by bound water, the lower the absolute permeability will be.
Furthermore, the higher proportion of pores occupied by fast-flowing
free water, the higher the absolute permeability will be.
According to the results of LBM simulations, the absolute perme­
ability of a digital rock model is related to three types of pores, namely
bound water pores, slow-flowing free water pores, and fast-flowing free
water pores. The details of the two basic NMR-based permeability
models are given in Appendix B. Among them, the SDR model utilizes
the geometric mean value of T2 spectrum, which is irrelevant to the pore
types and cannot be explained by the conclusions in this study. The main
parameter of the Coates model is the volume ratio of bound water to free
water, which matches the research findings in this paper. Therefore, the
results of LBM can be used to increase the theoretical support of the
Coates model.
For the Coates model, the determination of irreducible water satu­
ration is the key to calculate the rock’s permeability. The commonly
used method to determine NMR irreducible water saturation is the T2
cut-off value method. In general, the calculation of the cut-off value
needs T2 spectrum of rock in saturated state and centrifugal state.
However, this method assumes that pores smaller than a certain cut-off
value contain the entire bound water, which is inconsistent with the
distributions of three types of pores associated with different flow ve­
locities in our study. Based on the assumption that each pore has irre­
ducible water, the spectral bulk volume irreducible (SBVI) method was
proposed by Coates et al. (1998). The total irreducible water saturation
is the sum of each component-weighted amplitude of T2 spectrum. The
assumption of this method satisfies the bound water distribution in
Fig. 6. After determining the content of bound water for each relaxation
W. Yan et al.
Fig. 6. Pore radii of digital rock models with different velocity ranges to show
the bound water, slow-flowing free water, and fast-flowing water: (a) digital
rock S1; (b) digital rock S2.
time, the weight coefficient Wi of bound water for each component is
given, and the bound water porosity can be calculated as follows:
∑
φBVI = Wi φ2i (1)
i
Wi = 1/(a ⋅ T2i + 1)
where φBVI is the bound water porosity, %; φ2i is the ith interval porosity
in the T2 spectrum, %; T2i is the ith relaxation time in the T2 spectrum,
ms; α is a coefficient, which can be obtained by the slope of the rela­
tionship between geometric means of T2 spectra and reciprocals of
irreducible water saturations.
To demonstrate the validity of the relationship between T2 spectrum
and absolute permeability, 26 sandstone samples collected from the
Beibu Gulf Basin in China were utilized in the laboratory. Their T2
spectra were first measured by a low-field NMR machine with a Lamor
frequency of 23 MHz. Then, we performed centrifugal experiments to
acquire total irreducible water saturations of sandstones, which were
critical parameters for calculating absolute permeabilities using T2
spectra. The linear relationship curve of the geometric mean of T2
spectrum and reciprocal of irreducible water saturation was established,
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105
Fig. 7. Porosity-permeability correlations of digital rocks S1 and S2.
Fig. 8. Relationship between the geometric mean of the T2 spectrum and
reciprocal of irreducible water saturation.
(2)
as shown in Fig. 8. It was concluded that the average coefficient (α) of
these sandstones was 0.0245.
Combining the equations (24) and (25), the bound water porosity for
each sandstone was calculated. Then, the free water porosity was ob­
tained by subtracting the bound water porosity from the total porosity.
Finally, we got the absolute permeability by using the Coates model.
Fig. 9 shows the comparison between the calculated NMR-based
permeability and core analysis permeability results. The calculated
permeabilities are of the same order of magnitude as the experimental
results, which verifies the accuracy of our research results.
4. Relationship between T2 spectrum and relative permeability
In order to select the most accurate relative permeability model from
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W. Yan et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105

Table 1
Relative errors of relative permeability results calculated by various models.
Rock Model Relative Model Relative
error (%) error (%)

S1 Krw Purcell 163.3 Kro Purcell 466.1

model model
Burdine 33.8 Burdine 5.9
model model
Brooks- 23.6 Brooks- 7.9
Corey model Corey model
VGB model 56.9 VGB model 17.8
Fractal 22.9 Fractal 16.2
model model

S2 Krw Purcell 145.0 Kro Purcell 467.4

model model
Burdine 22.5 Burdine 26.8
model model
Brooks- 23.9 Brooks- 25.6
Corey model Corey model
VGB model 70.3 VGB model 19.8
Fractal 67.2 Fractal 40.8
model model

Fig. 9. Calculated and experimentally measured absolute permeability results.
the reviewed five models explained in Appendix B, we compared their
calculation results with the experimental results of parallel sandstones of
S1 (Fig. 10 (a)) and S2 (Fig. 10 (b)). The Purcell model is based on the
capillary pressure curve directly, and all parameters of the other four
models (pore size distribution index and fractal dimension) can also be
obtained by capillary pressure curve. Therefore, we used the charac­
teristics of the capillary pressure curve to calculate relative permeabil­
ities. The relative permeability experimental instrument was made by
Shandong Shiyi Science and Technology Co. Ltd. Relative permeabilities
were measured using the drainage steady-state method at 20 ◦ C. Two-
phase fluids were brine and aviation kerosene, and their viscosities
were 1.03 mPa s and 1.69 mPa s, respectively. First, only brine was
injected into the sandstone at a fixed rate, and then brine and aviation
kerosene were injected into the sandstone at the same time according to
a certain proportion of flow rate until the pressure drop and stabilization
of the fluids. The detailed descriptions of the procedures could be found
elsewhere (Hussain et al., 2014). In our study, the total injection rate
was kept constant at 2 ml/min. In Fig. 10, the big red datapoints indicate
experimental results, the x-axis is the normalized water saturation, and

Fig. 10. Comparisons of the results of five relative permeability calculation

models and laboratory measurements: (a) S1; (b) S2.

Fig. 11. Calculated pore size distributions based on T2 spectrums and digital
rock models.

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W. Yan et al.
Fig. 12. The relative permeabilities of the two sandstones based on the
T2 spectrums.
the y-axis is the relative permeability values. In the figure legend, the
letter “O” stands for the oil phase relative permeability, and “W” stands
for the water phase relative permeability.
It can be seen that the calculated relative permeabilities are all
inconsistent. To quantitatively evaluate these models, we calculated
relative errors of the relative permeability results, as shown in Table 1.
The applications of five relative permeability models of the parallel
sandstone of S1 were better than the parallel sandstone of S2. For two
sandstones, the average the relative errors of the Burdine model, Brooks-
Corey model were 22.2% and 20.3%, respectively. Both the VGB model
and fractal model also had good relative permeability calculation re­
sults, with the average relative errors of 41.2% and 36.8%, respectively.
The practical application of the Purcell model was poor, with the
average relative error of greater than 300%. Therefore, the Brooks-
Corey model had the most accurate calculation results.
In order to investigate the correlation between the T2 spectrum and
the relative permeability, it is necessary to convert characteristics of the
T2 spectrum into relative permeability model parameters as much as
possible. The T2 spectrum of a fully water-saturated rock sample shows a
positive linear correlation with the pore size. Fig. 11 shows the calcu­
lated pore size distributions based on the T2 spectrums and digital rock
models of S1 and S2. We can see that the pore size distributions calcu­
lated by the digital rock model and T2 spectrum of each sandstone have a
similar main peak. The discrepancy between them is mainly caused by
the insufficient resolution of the digital rock model. In addition, the
capillary pressure curve can also reflect the pore size according to the
Washburn equation (Washburn, 1921). Therefore, the NMR transverse
relaxation time (T2) can be directly converted into the capillary pressure
(Pc), which is:
1 water pores. Bound water exists in pores of all sizes, and fast-
Pc = c (3)
T2
where c is the conversion coefficient between capillary pressure and T2,
ms.pa. Then, the capillary pressure curve can be converted from the T2
spectrum.
Since the Brooks-Corey model has the highest accuracy among the
five relative permeability models, it is necessary to acquire the pore size
distribution index. We found that the pore size distribution indexes from
the capillary pressure curves converted by T2 spectrums of S1 and S2
were 2.50 and 1.50, respectively. By using Eq. (B.8) and Eq. (B.9), the
relative permeabilities of the rock samples based on the T2 spectrums
9
Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105
were calculated, as shown in Fig. 12. Through the comparative analysis
of calculation results and experimental measurement results (Exp.), it
was concluded that the average relative errors of the oil phase and water
phase relative permeabilities of the two sandstones were 22.1% and
40.0%, respectively. Although the relative permeabilities calculated by
T2 spectrums were worse than the results from Brooks-Corey model, the
accuracies still proved that combining the T2 spectrum with the Brooks-
Corey model can effectively contribute to calculating the relative
permeability.
5. Discussions and conclusions
Although the results in this research contribute to a better under­
standing of NMR-based absolute and relative permeability models, we
only considered the case that the digital rock model has a high perme­
ability value without fractures. Thus, in future researches, more detailed
studies around more heterogeneous rocks are still needed. For example,
the rock sample with fracture networks may have different pore type
categories with various fluid flow velocities, and it could be more
difficult to investigate the relationship between the T2 spectrum and
absolute/relative permeabilities. Meanwhile, the introduced methodol­
ogy needs to be properly investigated for the other types of reservoir
rocks as well.
In our research, we tried to find a more accurate way to calculate
absolute permeability and relative permeability based on the NMR T2
spectrum. Different types of pores and their porosities can be used to
calculate absolute permeability because it is related to only one-phase
fluid. However, the calculation of relative permeability is related to
two-phase fluids. The conclusion of the three types of pores and their
porosities cannot be used to calculate relative permeability. In future
studies, we will apply the multiphase flow LBM method to study the
effects of different types of pores on relative permeability, and then
develop new relative permeability equations. Furthermore, the shale
and carbonate microstructures have their specific shapes, which may
change the fluid velocity distribution and absolute permeability. It is
necessary to identify shale and carbonate microstructures before using
LBM to simulate flow properties. However, in the present study, the
single-energy CT images were used to construct 3D digital rock, for
which it is difficult to separate shale and carbonate microstructures
precisely. In future studies, we will perform dual-energy CT experiments
or combing SEM-EDS (QEMSCAN) mineral analysis and single-energy
CT to identify shale and carbonate microstructures, and study their in­
fluences on flow properties.
This research investigated NMR-based absolute and relative perme­
ability models of sandstone. The LBM was used on 3D digital rock
models for investigating different types of pores associated with fluid
flow velocities. Moreover, five relative permeability models were
analyzed. Based on the present research, we obtained the following
conclusions:
(1) According to the simulated fluid flow velocity distributions, three
types of pores were determined, including non-flowing bound
water pores, slow-flowing free water pores and fast-flowing free
flowing free water mainly exists in medium-sized pores.
(2) Through eliminating bound water pores and slow-flowing free
water pores gradually, the porosity and permeability values of
digital rock models were calculated. We found that fast-flowing
free water pores had the highest contribution to absolute
permeability. If a rock contains a large number of fast-flowing
free water pores, the permeability will be high even if the
porosity is low.
(3) The simulation results add theoretical supports to the traditional
Coates absolute permeability model. It is concluded that the pore
size is the link between the T2 spectrum and absolute
W. Yan et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105

permeability. By taking the SBVI method into the traditional
Coates model, we obtained good permeability calculation results.
(4) We compared the relative permeability results of five models and
found out that the Brooks-Corey model was the best one for the
studied sandstones. The Purcell model is not able to capture the
main characteristics of relative permeability curves. The T2
spectrum can be converted into a capillary pressure curve, and
then the pore size distribution index can be calculated to acquire
the oil phase and water phase relative permeabilities. It verifies
the accuracy of the T2-converted Brooks-Corey relative perme­
ability model.
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported in part by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (No. 42004098), China Postdoctoral Science
Foundation (No. 2019M662463), Shandong Provincial Natural Science
Foundation, China (No. ZR2020QD054), and Fundamental Research
Funds for the Central Universities (No. 20CX06026A).

Appendix A. LBM simulations

There are several categories of fluid flow numerical simulation methods, including finite element methods (Bogdanov et al., 2011), finite volume
methods (Piller et al., 2014), LBMs (Shi and Tang, 2018), network modeling methods (Al-Dhahli et al., 2014), and pore morphology methods (Yan
et al., 2017). Although both finite element methods and finite volume methods can calculate fluid flow velocity and absolute permeability accurately,
their computational speeds are low. In our research, we utilized LBM to study the fluid flow characteristics due to its high accuracy in predicting the
rock’s absolute permeability and calculating the flow velocity of each cubic voxel in the digital rock model. LBM is a mesoscopic computational fluid
dynamics simulation method, which originated from the lattice-gas automata (LGA) method (Mcnamara and Zanetti, 1988). It has undergone more
than 30 years of development and has become a hot research topic in the field of fluid dynamics, both in terms of theoretical studies and practical
applications.
The LBM we used in this study was the D3Q15 model (Qian et al., 1992), and its fifteen discrete velocities of each lattice can be expressed by:
⎡ ⎤
0 1 − 1 0 0 0 0 1 − 1 1 − 1 1 − 1 1 − 1
e=⎣0 0 0 1 − 1 0 0 1 − 1 1 − 1 − 1 1 − 1 1 ⎦ (A.1)
0 0 0 0 0 1 − 1 1 − 1 − 1 1 1 1 − 1 1

The macroscopic density (ρ) of the fluid on each lattice is given by:
∑
14
ρ= fa (A.2)
a=0

where fa is the distribution function associated with velocity.

The macroscopic velocity (u) of the fluid on each lattice is given by:

1∑
14
u= fa ea (A.3)
ρ a=0

By using the commonly used lattice Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (LBGK) model, the lattice Boltzmann equation can be obtained as (Chen et al., 1992):
[ ]
fa (x, t) − faeq (x, t)
fa (x + eΔt, t + Δt) = fa (x, t) − (A.4)
τ
⏟̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏞⏞̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏟ ⏟̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅⏞⏞̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅̅
̅⏟
Stream
Collide

where τ is the relaxation time, characterizing the speed of particles from a non-equilibrium state to an equilibrium state. In this equation, the first two
items represent the streaming step, and the last item represents the collision step. faeq is the equilibrium distribution function, which is defined as (Liu,
2010):
⎧
⎪
⎪ 1 1
⎪
⎪ ρ + ρu⋅u a = 0
⎪
⎪ 8 3
⎪
⎨
1 1 1 1
eq
fa = ρ + ρei ⋅u + ρ(ei ⋅u)2 − ρu⋅u a = 1, ⋯, 6 (A.5)
⎪
⎪ 8 3 2 6
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪ 1 1 1 1
⎪
⎩ ρ + ρei ⋅u + ρ(ei ⋅u)2 − ρu⋅u a = 7, ⋯, 14
64 24 16 48
The D3Q15 LBM was applied to a 3D digital rock model consisting of cubic voxels (Lx × Ly × Lz voxels in total). In the digital rock binary format file,
0 represents pore voxel and 1 represents solid voxel. In the initial state, the pores are saturated with a certain phase fluid, and the same phase fluid is
injected from the inlet face of the digital rock model. The boundary condition in this study was the periodic boundary condition. Combining Darcy’s
equation and LBM simulations, the absolute permeability of the digital rock model in the x-direction can be calculated as (Liu, 2010):
∑ Ly ∑
Lx ∑ Lz ∑
14
a
fi,j,k eax
(8τ − 4)dx2
(A.6)
i=1 j=1 k=1 a=0
kx = ⋅ ( )
9(ρin − ρout ) Lx × Ly × Lz

10
W. Yan et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105

where ρin and ρout are macroscopic densities of inlet face and outlet face of the digital rock, respectively; dx is the resolution of the digital rock; and eax
is the component of ea in the x-direction. The simulation continues until the absolute permeability reaches stability. The simulations of LBM were
performed on a workstation with the Intel Xeon Silver 4210 (10 Cores 2.20 GHz) Processors, 64 GB of memory. The simulation time was based on the
pore voxel number of the digital rock model. In our study, it took 1 h to 9 h for calculating the absolute permeability and fluid velocity distributions.

Appendix B. Absolute and Relative permeability models

Two basic NMR-based absolute permeability models are the Coates model and SDR model, which can be extended into more complex models. Both
Coates model and SDR model work well in a porous medium when the water-saturated state’s T2 spectrum and pore size distribution can be correlated.
Although they both use the characteristics of the T2 spectrum, their principles are quite different.
Coates model is also called the free fluid model, which utilizes the free fluid volume and irreducible fluid volume given by the following equation
(Coates and Dumanoir, 1991):
( )4 ( )2
φ VFFI
k= (B.1)
C1 VBVI

where C1 is the empirical coefficient, which can be obtained by petrophysical experiments of rock samples; φ is the effective porosity of a rock, %; VFFI
is the free fluid volume, cm3; VBVI is the irreducible fluid volume, cm3. In NMR logging interpretations, a cut-off value is necessary to divide the T2
spectrum. The integral area of the T2 spectrum on the left side of the cut-off value represents the irreducible fluid component, while the other part
represents the free fluid component.
SDR model is also called the mean T2 model, which uses the geometric mean of the T2 spectrum, and is expressed as the following equation
(Kenyon, 1997):
( φ )4
k = C2 2
T2g (B.2)
100

where C2 is the empirical coefficient; φ is the effective porosity of a rock, %; and T2g is the geometric mean of the T2 spectrum.
Absolute permeabilities calculated by the Coates model or SDR model are in good agreement with the experimental permeability results of clean
sandstones. However, they are more of empirical equations, lacking the understanding and consideration of the basic fluid flow characteristics in the
micro-pores.
There are three types of relative permeability models, including capillary pressure-based relative permeability models, pore characteristics-based
relative permeability models, and fractal theory-based relative permeability models. Although they are not NMR-based relative permeability, the
capillary pressure, pore size distribution index, and pore fractal dimension can be calculated by the NMR T2 spectrum. In this paper, five relative
permeability models related to the NMR T2 spectrum were analyzed and the most accurate model was determined for the sandstone reservoirs. The
five models included the Purcell model, Burdine model, Brooks-Corey model, van Genuchten-Burdine model, and fractal model. In the two-phase flow,
we supposed that the wetting phase was water, and the non-wetting phase was oil.
Purcell (1949) developed the permeability equation for the idealized capillary bundle model by combining Poiseuille’s equation and the pressure
of the displacement equation. Therefore, the relative permeability equations for water and oil would be calculated on the capillary pressure curve,
which could be expressed by:
∫ Sw − 2
P dS
Krw = ∫01 c (B.3)
P − 2 dS
0 c

∫1
P−c 2 dS
Kro = ∫S1w (B.4)
0
P−c 2 dS

where Krw and Kro respectively are the relative permeabilities of water and oil, %; Sw is the water saturation, %; Pc is the capillary pressure, psi. Purcell
model demonstrated the relationship between capillary pressure and relative permeability, but it was proposed based on a simplified working hy­
pothesis, which differed significantly from the real rock.
Burdine (1953) modified the Purcell model by adding the term of a tortuosity factor. This term can be expressed as the normalized water satu­
ration, and the relative permeabilities of water and oil are computed as follows:
∫
( ′ )2 Sw P− 2 dS
Krw = Sw ∫01 c (B.5)
0
P−c 2 dS
∫1 − 2
( ′ )2 Pc dS
Kro = 1 − Sw ∫S1w (B.6)
P − 2 dS
0 c

Sw − Swirr
(B.7)
′
Sw =
1 − Swirr

where S’w is the normalized water saturation, %; and Swirr is the irreducible water saturation, %.
As can be seen, the above-mentioned relative permeability models focus on the capillary pressure of the rock, ignoring the characteristics of pore
structures. Brooks and Corey (1966) developed a relative permeability model in a new form by introducing the pore size distribution index as follows:

11
W. Yan et al. Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering 207 (2021) 109105

( ′ )2+3
Krw = Sw λ (B.8)
⎡ ⎤
( ′ )2 ( ′ )2+1
Kro = 1 − Sw ⎣1 − Sw λ ⎦ (B.9)

where λ is the pore size distribution index, which is dimensionless. Similarly, in order to add the effect of pore structures to the Burdine model, the van
Genuchten-Burdine (VGB) model was proposed (van Genuchten, 1980), which could be expressed by:
[ ( )m ]
( ′ )2 1
(B.10)
′
Krw = Sw 1 − 1 − Sw m

( )
( ′ )2
1
(B.11)
′
Kro = 1 − Sw 1 − Sw m

where m is the fitting parameter, which is dimensionless. Although this parameter is empirical, it characterizes the pore structure of the rock.
Many studies have proved that the pore space of natural rock samples shows fractal characteristics (Li et al., 2021), and the fractal dimension can
be derived from the capillary pressure curve, for which the relationship can be described as (Li, 2010a,b):
( ′ )−
2
Pc = Pmax 1 − bSw 3− Df
(B.12)

where Pc is the capillary pressure, psi; Pmax is the capillary pressure at the irreducible water saturation in the drainage case, psi; b is a constant
parameter, dimensionless; and Df is the fractal dimension, dimensionless. Therefore, many relative permeability models based on fractal theory have
emerged. In our study, we researched the fractal theory on the relative permeability model proposed by Yang et al. (2008), which is:
11− 3Df

(B.13)
′ 3− Df
Krw = Sw
( 5− Df )
( ′ 2 )2
(B.14)
′
Kro = 1 − Sw 1 − Sw 3− Df

Credit author statement

Weichao Yan: Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Methodology, Investigation, and Writing – original draft, Jianmeng Sun: Su­
pervision, Validation, Resources, Writing – review & editing, Huaimin Dong: Methodology, and Investigation. Likai Cui: Methodology, and
Investigation

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