GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS, VOL. 31, L04606, doi:10.
1029/2003GL018761, 2004
Permeability prediction from thin sections: 3D reconstruction and
Lattice-Boltzmann flow simulation
Youngseuk Keehm, Tapan Mukerji, and Amos Nur
Geophysics Department, Stanford University, California, USA
Received 2 October 2003; revised 30 December 2003; accepted 9 January 2004; published 20 February 2004.
[1] We present results and methodology for predicting
permeability from thin sections. The method consists of two
key components—reconstruction of 3D porous media from
2D thin sections and 3D flow simulation using the Lattice-
Boltzmann (LB) technique. We construct 3D porous media
using sequential indicator simulation (SIS), a geostatistical
method, with conditional data and input statistical
parameters from thin sections. Permeability is then
estimated through flow simulation on the reconstructed
porous media. The LB flow simulation successfully handles
very complex reconstructed 3D pore geometries. Computed
permeabilities from seven thin section samples show
good agreement with laboratory measurements over a
wide range of permeability. We compare our method to
one that uses only thin sections without 3D reconstruction.
The comparison shows that our method gives better
prediction of permeability, and is less sensitive to
statistical errors from discrepancy between thin sections
and core samples. INDEX TERMS: 5114 Physical Properties
of Rocks: Permeability and porosity; 5139 Physical Properties of
Rocks: Transport properties; 3230 Mathematical Geophysics:
Numerical solutions; 1832 Hydrology: Groundwater transport;
3210 Mathematical Geophysics: Modeling. Citation: Keehm, Y.,
T. Mukerji, and A. Nur (2004), Permeability prediction from thin
sections: 3D reconstruction and Lattice-Boltzmann flow
simulation, Geophys. Res. Lett., 31, L04606, doi:10.1029/
2003GL018761.
1. Introduction
[2] The prediction of permeability is vital to many fields
including the production of oil and gas in petroleum reser-
voirs and the transport of contaminants in soils and aquifers.
There have been many studies on permeability prediction
ranging from empirical relations to 3D flow simulations on
digital porous media. Direct measurement of permeability in
the laboratory, though accurate, can be time-consuming and
expensive, and requires the preparation of core plugs. Most
common indirect approaches are empirical ones, such as the
Kozeny-Carman relation based on simple cylindrical pore
geometry. These models have been widely applied because
they are easy to use [Dullien, 1992; Mavko and Nur, 1997].
However, they give little insight into the underlying relation
between pore geometry and permeability. The models also
require other measurements such as the specific surface area
and the formation factor [Walsh and Brace, 1984], and often
have fitting parameters that need to be calibrated with
permeability data [Dullien, 1992].
Copyright 2004 by the American Geophysical Union.
0094-8276/04/2003GL018761
L04606
[3] Since permeability is a function of pore geometry only,
we can predict permeability exactly with detailed data on
pore geometry. However, the complexity of porous media
makes the calculation often difficult, both in theory and
computation. In addition, detailed 3D description is very
expensive and not widely available, although recent advances
in X-ray microtomography techniques can provide a detailed
3D description of the pore structure [Coker et al., 1996].
Often, pore geometry information is limited to 2D thin
sections. Blair et al. [1993] introduced a permeability pre-
diction technique from thin sections. They used a variant of
the Kozeny-Carman relation using porosity and the specific
surface area estimated from thin section images. The esti-
mated permeabilities agreed well with laboratory measure-
ments. However, the estimated permeability was sensitive to
the resolution of thin section images. A small change in
image resolution gave a relatively large error. In addition,
empirical estimates or laboratory measurements were still
required for calibrating other parameters in their formulation.
[4] Recently, several 3D reconstruction methods from 2D
thin sections were introduced. Adler et al. [1990] deter-
mined the first two statistical moments of binary thin
sections (porosity and two-point correlation function) and
used a truncated Gaussian random function to reconstruct
random 3D models that matched the moments. However,
computed permeabilities were consistently lower than lab-
oratory measurements. Hilfer and Manwart [2001] calcu-
lated local percolation probabilities and showed that the
reconstructed 3D porous media from this method have
much lower connectivity than the original 3D pore geom-
etry by X-ray microtomography. Yeong and Torquato
[1998] incorporated an additional parameter—lineal-path
function. The additional parameter, however, did not
improve the connectivity of reconstructed porous media
[Manwart et al., 2000]. Øren and Bakke [2002] chose a
different approach. Instead of using statistical reconstruction
techniques, they used a process-based model, which
accounts for physical processes such as sedimentation,
compaction and diagenesis. Although their method accu-
rately reproduced local percolation probabilities, simulating
physical processes required very intensive calculations and
laboratory measurements, such as grain size distributions.
[5] We propose a new method of permeability prediction
using flow simulation on stochastically reconstructed 3D
porous media. The only required input data in our method
are thin section images. The 3D porous media are recon-
structed by the sequential indicator simulation (SIS)
[Deutsch and Journel, 1998]. We calculate local percolation
probabilities from reconstructed porous media to compare
the connectivity quantitatively. Permeabilities of seven thin
section samples are estimated through the Lattice-Boltz-
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Table 1. Porosity and Permeability From Laboratory Measure-

ments and Estimated From the Flow Simulation on Reconstructed
3D Porous Media
Porosity (%) Permeability (mD)
Sample # Laboratory Estimated Laboratory Estimated
1 30.0 28.7 1,766 1,679
2 26.9 27.8 1,030 1,431
3 25.2 25.6 818 946
4 28.1 39.0 591 566 Figure 1. (a) Scanned image from an epoxy-saturated thin
5 23.4 24.7 295 320
6 22.0 20.8 91 101 section. The scale bar is 1 mm. (b) Binary image after image
7 20.1 20.0 39 61 processing. The pore space is shown in black.

mann (LB) flow simulation on the reconstructed porous
media.
2. Thin Section Data and Image Processing
[6] Thin sections were obtained from sandstone samples
of the Daqing oil field [Prasad and Nur, manuscript in
preparation, 2002]. They are relatively clean sandstones with
clay content between 4 –10%. Porosity and Klinkenberg-
corrected air permeability were measured at room pressure
and at 5.5 MPa confining pressure under controlled room
temperature. The porosity ranges from 20% to 30% and the
permeability ranges from 40 mD to 1,700 mD (Table 1).
Since the sandstone samples were saturated with blue epoxy,
the pore space was clearly distinguishable in the thin section
images. From a color image of a thin section, a binary image
is obtained by assigning every blue pixel as pore spaces
and all other pixels as solid grains (Figure 1). The binary
image can be represented by an indicator function, f(r):
8 gðhÞ ¼ cf1  expð3h=aÞg;
< 1 if r belongs to pore space;
f ðrÞ ¼
: where c is called the sill and a the range of the variogram.
0 otherwise;
where r denotes spatial location within the binary image.
Porosity, f, and the autocorrelation function A(h), (i.e., the
two-point correlation function) can be defined by the
statistical averages, denoted by hi:
f ¼ h f ðrÞi; AðhÞ ¼ h f ðrÞf ðr þ hÞi;
where h is a lag vector between two points. Two important
properties of the autocorrelation function of the binary
image are as follows [Blair et al., 1993]:
Að0Þ ¼ f; lim AðhÞ ¼ f2 :
jhj!1
Journel, 1998]. Since we are dealing with binary 3D porous
media, an algorithm based on a binary indicator function is
a more natural and straightforward technique than truncat-
ing continuous Gaussian fields. We first performed vario-
gram modeling. The variogram is related to the
autocorrelation function, except that it reflects the dissimi-
larity of data in spatial distribution instead of similarity. The
variogram is expressed as follows:
nðhÞ
1 X
gðhÞ ¼ f f ðri Þ  f ðri þ hÞg2 ¼ Að0Þ  AðhÞ ð4Þ
2nðhÞ i¼1
where n(h) is the number of pairs of data locations separated
by a vector h. We then modeled this raw experimental
variogram using an exponential function to ensure positive-
definiteness of the variogram model. The exponential
variogram model is as follows:
ð5Þ
ð1Þ
With the calculated porosity and the variogram model, we
used SIS to simulate 3D porous media conditioned to the
thin section.
[8] In the SIS algorithm, all the nodes in the 3D grid are
visited along a random path. At each node, a local condi-
tional cumulative distribution function (ccdf ) for f(r) is
ð2Þ estimated. This ccdf is conditioned to the 2D image as well
as to all previously simulated nodes along the random path.
The ccdf is estimated by indicator kriging. First, a value for
f(r) is drawn from the local ccdf. Next, this value is retained
as conditioning data and we proceed to the next node along
the random path. Finally, when all the nodes are visited, we
ð3Þ

Figure 2a shows a 2D autocorrelation function of the binary

image from Figure 1. Two 1D autocorrelation functions
along orthogonal directions indicate that the binary image is
fairly isotropic, since the difference between them is
negligible. The porosity measured from the binary image
is 29%. We can see that equation (3) is successfully verified
in Figure 2b. Porosities from all thin sections show good
agreement with laboratory measurements.

3. Reconstruction of 3D Porous Media

Figure 2. (a) 2D autocorrelation function from the binary
[7] We use a geostatistical approach to reconstruct 3D image. (b) 1D horizontal and vertical autocorrelation
porous media from thin sections using SIS [Deutsch and functions.

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L04606 KEEHM ET AL.: PERMEABILITY FROM THIN SECTIONS
Figure 3. (a) An example of reconstructed 3D pore
geometry. (b) Comparison of p(L) from a 3D digital
Fontainebleau sandstone sample from X-ray microtomo-
graphy to that from reconstructed pore geometry using a 2D
slice of the digital sample.
have one realization of the 3D binary field with the correct
spatial statistics. Figure 3a shows an example of a simulated
3D porous medium. We generated multiple realizations
from each thin section to capture statistical variability. We
calculated the statistical properties from simulated 3D pore
structures, and verified that they matched those from the 2D
binary images.
[9] Manwart et al. [2000] reported that a stochastic
reconstruction using truncated Gaussian random functions
yields much lower connectivity than an actual sample. To
test the connectivity of random media simulated by SIS,
we conducted the following calculation. We used an
X-ray microtomographic Fontainebleau sandstone with
15% porosity [Olson and Rothman, 1997], from which
we selected a 2D cross-section and reconstructed a 3D
pore geometry using SIS. To estimate the connectivity,
we calculated local percolation probabilities [Manwart et
al., 2000; Øren and Bakke, 2002]. The most commonly
used parameter for this purpose, p(L), is the total fraction
of sub-blocks of side length L that percolate all three
coordinate directions. The percolation means that in all
three directions there exists a continuous path inside pore
space that connects the inlet and outlet faces. Figure 3b
shows that p(L) from our reconstruction matches reason-
ably with that from the original 3D digital pore geometry
by X-ray microtomography. Although there is small
discrepancy, our model shows much better p(L) agree-
ment than do other stochastic reconstruction methods
[Manwart et al., 2000, Figure 5]. It seems that SIS
produces more realistic connectivity than does the simu-
lated annealing with the truncated Gaussian random
function.
4. Permeability Estimation by Flow Simulation
[10] The simulated 3D porous media are geometrically
very complex and may contain statistical noise from the
stochastic simulation. The LB method for numerical flow
simulation is an excellent choice, since it can handle
complex pore geometry without any simplifications
[Ladd, 1994; Bosl et al., 1998; Keehm et al., 2001].
The LB method describes fluid motion with the interac-
tion of a massive number of particles following simple
local rules [Doolen, 1990]. The rules recover the Navier-
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Figure 4. Local mass flux predicted by the Lattice-
Boltzmann flow simulation. Flux values are normalized
by the maximal value. Cross-sectional plots from high flux
areas are shown on the right hand side.
Stokes equation at the macroscopic scale [Ladd, 1994].
The biggest advantages of the LB method are that it
is readily applied to any arbitrary discrete geometry
[Cancelliere et al., 1998] and that it describes fluid flow
in porous media very accurately [Ladd, 1994; Keehm,
2003]. However, care must be taken, since local velocity
fields can have a few artifacts [Manwart et al., 2002].
We used time-averaged velocities to avoid these artifacts
[Ladd, 1994]. Figure 4 shows an example of the distri-
bution of local fluid flux after flow simulation. The flow
simulation is done with an assigned pressure gradient
(rP) across opposite faces of cubes. From the local flux,
we calculate a volume-averaged flux hqi. Then, the
macroscopic permeability (k) is calculated using the
following:
hqi ¼ k=h rP; ð6Þ
where h is the dynamic viscosity of the fluid.
[11] To capture the statistical variability, we generated
multiple realizations of 3D porous media from each thin
section. We performed the LB flow simulation and obtained
permeability estimates of the multiple 3D cubes. The final
permeability for the thin section was predicted by averaging
these permeability estimates. Predicted permeabilities from
all seven thin sections show very good agreement with
laboratory measurements (Figure 5a). The correlation coef-
Figure 5. (a) Predicted permeabilities vs. laboratory
measurements. (b) Comparison between permeabilities
predicted by this study that uses flow simulation on
stochastically reconstructed 3D porous media (dots), and
estimated permeabilities from the model by Blair et al.
[1993] using only thin sections (squares).
L04606 KEEHM ET AL.: PERMEABILITY FROM THIN SECTIONS
ficient between estimated permeabilities and laboratory
measurements is 0.96, which implies very accurate perme-
ability estimation.
5. Comparison to a Method Without
3D Reconstruction
[12] Walsh and Brace [1984] related permeability to
porosity, formation factor (F) and the specific surface area:
 
k ¼ f2 = cFS 2 ; ð7Þ
where c is a geometric factor, with c = 2 for circular pores
and c = 3 for flat cracks. This is a variant of the Kozeny-
Carman relation, where the formation factor replaces
tortuosity, which is not practically measurable. Blair et al.
[1993] suggested that Equation (7) would be useful for
estimating permeability from thin sections. To determine the
specific surface area, they used a relationship between the
specific surface area and the spatial correlation functions
[Debye et al., 1957]:
S ¼ 4  A0 ð0Þ; ð8Þ
0 permeability using a lattice Boltzmann simulation, Geophy. Res. Lett.,
where A (0) is the slope of the two-point correlation function
at the origin. The advantage of this method is that it does
not require 3D reconstruction or flow simulation. However,
since A(h) is a discrete function, very high-resolution
images are required for accurate calculation of A0(0).
Moreover, the estimation of the specific surface area is
sensitive to the image resolution; a slight change in
resolution will significantly change the permeability
estimation. In addition, the formation factor (F) and the
geometric factor (c) are not easy to obtain from thin section
images.
[13] We applied the method by Blair et al. [1993] to our
data set. Figure 5b shows a comparison between the two
methods. Both show reasonably good estimation of perme-
ability, but our method gives better agreement. One inter-
esting observation is that two methods show very similar
error trends, which suggests a common error source: the
statistical parameters from the thin section image. The main
cause of the errors is the discrepancy between thin sections
and the actual rock samples; that is, a thin section is only a
small part of the core and can give slightly different
statistical parameters from those of the rock sample. It
appears our method is less sensitive to this discrepancy,
because our method does not involve the derivative, which
is sensitive to even a small error.
6. Conclusions
[14] The LB flow simulation in stochastically recon-
structed 3D porous media is a robust combination for
permeability prediction from thin sections, providing very
good agreement with laboratory measurements over a wide
range of permeability. The sequential indicator simulation
successfully generates realistic 3D porous media that have
better connectivity than those from other stochastic recon-
struction methods, such as simulated annealing using the
truncated Gaussian function. The LB simulation shows its
strength in handling realistic and complex 3D pore geom-
etries. Compared to the method without 3D reconstruction
and without flow simulation, our method gives better
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estimates of permeability. Both methods give similar error
trends in permeability estimation. This implies that the
statistical parameters from the thin section sometimes do
not exactly represent the source rock, which is inevitable
with real data. The results indicate that our method is less
sensitive to the discrepancy between thin sections and rock
samples. Finally, our method can be an efficient automated
tool, since it only requires one input datum, a binary thin
section, without any empirical or calibration parameters.
[15] Acknowledgments. We thank Dr. Manika Prasad for providing
thin sections and permeability data. We gratefully acknowledge the support
from the Chemical Sciences, Geosciences and Biosciences Division, Office
of Basic Energy Sciences, Office of Science, US Department of Energy,
under Grants #DE-FG03-86ER13601 and #DE-FG03-99ER14933, and
Co-op Agreement #DE-FC26-01BC15354.
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Y. Keehm, T. Mukerji, and A. Nur, Geophysics Department, Stanford
University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA. (keehm@stanford.edu)