PETE 3100 Section 3

Porosity

Laura Louise Demarch

Group 6

Members: Branden Ballentine

Brennan Holowaty
Quentin Ridinger

10/10/2014

Objective of the Experiment

This procedure intends to measure the effective porosity of a sample rock,

applying the Boyles Law and using the Coberly-Stevens Method.

Principles of Operation

A rock is not completely solid, it has some microscopic spaces, called pores.
These pore are the spaces where oil, gas and brine usually are stored in a reservoir
rock. The total porosity can be measured by
=

Pore volume
Total volume

where porosity is dimensionless, pore and total volume must have the same volume
dimension, such as cubic centimeter (cm3).
There are several types of porosity, but the one is most important to petroleum
engineering is the effective porosity, that is the pore volume that is occupied by mobile
recoverable hydrocarbon fluids. The effective porosity is given by
=

interconnected pores vol .+ deadend pore vol .+culdesac pore vol.

Total volume

To find the effective volume there are several test, such as saturation with water
or checking the average density of the grains that are direct ways, but take a long time
or are imprecise. Another test that can be done is indirect, using Boyles Law, which
states that at a constant temperature and fixed quantity of gas there is an inverse
relationship between the pressure and the volume for an ideal gas and can be
represented as
P1 V 1=P 2 V 2
associated with the Ideal Gas Law,
PV =nRT
can lead to the equations found in Calculations Section.
The experiment consists in using an object with a known volume in a chamber
and measuring the pressure of the chamber with an inert gas, in this case helium.
Helium is an excellent inert gas that is not reagent with the rock and also can be

approximated to an ideal gas. Then the rock sample has its dimensions measured and
volume calculated, and it is introduced in the chamber and the pressure is measured
again.

Procedure

To measure the porosity of a sample rock, it was used the TPI Teaching Helium
Porositimeter, with helium and the rock sample.
The dimensions of the rock sample were taken with a caliper and the mass was
measured using the balance.
The T.I. adjusted the equipment. The Supply Gas, Vent and To Core valves were
closed. Rel Vol 2 valve were opened, it was waited a few seconds, then the valve was
closed. The Vent and To Core valves were opened, the pressure was noted.
To find the Calibration Data, all the billets were placed into the cup cavity and the
cup assembly was placed in the cup frame, then the top screw tightened. The To Core
and Vent valves were closed and the Supply valve was opened. The pressure stabilized
and the Supply Gas valve was closed. The pressure was noted.The To Core valve was
opened and the pressure stabilized, the pressure was noted. The Vent Valve was
opened and the billets were removed.
It was created a stack of billets slightly taller than the sample core, with billets B,
D and E, which were recorded.
To find the Removed Billet Data the Supply Gas, Vent and To Core valves were
closed, the procedure made previously was repeated, but instead of using all the billets,
only billets A and C were used. The pressures were noted.
To find the Grain Volume Data the same procedure was made with A and C
billets and the rock sample in the cup, all the pressures were noted.
The system pressure was released and all the valves were opened, the
instrument and work space were cleaned.

Calculations and Results of the Experiment

The dimensions of the core were 3.795 mm of diameter and 7.342 mm of length,
the weight was 169.9078 g. To find the volume d is the diameter and l is the length, the
following calculus was used:

V total ( cm3 )=

d
3.795
l=
7.342
4
4
3

V total=83.04774 cm

The volume of removed billets B, D and E are found in the lab handout and its
3
volume sum is V billetsremoved =86.66595 cm .
The measured data is shown in Table 1.
Table 1. Measured Data
Full Cup Reference Pressure
Full Cup
(psi)
Pressure(psi)
0.05
93.72
76.4
corrected values
93.67
76.35
Removed Billet
Removed Billet Cup
Cup Pressure
Zero Pressure (psi
Reference Pressure (psi)
(psi)
0.05
93.11
22.75
corrected values
93.06
22.7
System Reference Pressure
Cup Sample
Zero Pressure (psi)
(psi)
Pressure (psi)
0.05
93.09
47.43
corrected values
93.04
47.38
Zero Pressure(psi)

To calculate the porosity is necessary find the pore volume, which is the total
volume minus grain volume. In order to find the grain volume is necessary to find the
System Reference Volume, that is found in the Lab Handout and given by:
V ref =

V billetsremoved
Prefrem Prefful

P cuprem P cupfull

All the pressures must be corrected and the used values are:
Prefrem , Removed Billet Cup Reference Pressure, in psi;
Prefful , Full Cup Reference Pressure, in psi;
Pcuprem , Removed Billet Cup Reference Pressure, in psi;
Pcupfull , Removed Billet Cup Pressure, in psi.

The System Reference Volume found is:

V ref =

86.66595
=30.1687 cm3
93.06 93.67

22.7 76.35

To find the grain volume, it is used the following equation, found in the Lab
Handout:

|(

V grain =V billetsremoved

Prefful P refsample

V
Pcupfull Pcupsample ref

where all the pressures must be corrected and the values are:
V grain , Grain volume, in cm3;
Prefsample , System Reference Pressure, in psi;
Pcupsample , Cup sample pressure, in psi.
The Grain volume found is:

|(

V grain =86.66595

93.67 93.04

30.1687
76.35 47.38

V grain =64.4362cm3
The pore volume is given by:
V pore =V totalV grain=83.0477464.4362
V pore =18.6115 cm

The effective porosity is now by:

=

V pore 18.6115
=
=0.2241
V total 83.04774

which means that the effective porosity is about 22.41% of the total volume of the rock.

Discussion and Conclusion

The rock sample can be considered with a good effective porosity, which leads to
a good permeability for the reservoir that the core was removed. The effective porosity
that is the pore volume that is occupied by mobile recoverable hydrocarbon fluids is a
parameter utilized in many aspects of the prospection of oil, since consider a reservoir
as economic viable as a parameter to predict the future oil production.
Some errors can occur by leakage of gas, but there was not found evidence of it.
Another source of error is that the chamber, when filled with the rock and the billets, is
not completely full, creating a dead volume, increasing the margin of error. In general,
helium porositimeter presents small errors, associated to systematic errors or lack of
calibration. With the Zero Pressure found as 0.05 psi it is possible to supposed that
equipment has good precision.