Control for the granulometric composition and permeability of rocks by software and hardware methods

There are many methods of control for characteristics of an object in oil and gas industry. Similar characteristics of the object can be controlled by a variety of methods each of which produces an error inherent in the implementation of the principle of an appropriate method, which reduces the reliability of the data. Existing control methods do not provide a complete description of characteristics (such as particle size, shape, and permeability of rocks) that need to be considered in the development and operation of oil and gas fields. In this paper, it is proposed to increase the reliability of the characteristics using the method of combination.
Based on the analysis of scientific and methodological researches and combination techniques in different application areas, a classification of combination methods in the aspect of operation techniques is proposed and a cluster characteristic of combination objects with a description of their properties is presented. This classification permits one to choose one or another combination model depending on purposes of the solved problem.
This paper presents the hardware and software systems for the analysis of particle size distribution and permeability of rocks. These complexes permit one to control for the particle size with allowance for the shape factor and determine the permeability in low-permeability rocks by enhancing the range specified by the liquid flow (0.0001–30 ml/min).
The designed device for monitoring the particle size distribution is based on a combination of geometric and hydrodynamic methods, which makes it possible to measure the coefficient of the particle shape, including other than spherical. As a result, the device allows measuring the particle size in the range of 1–60 microns, repeatability, and reliability of results within the error of 5%(by Student's t-test), the accuracy of the created complex increased by 2% with respect to the particle size distribution regardless of the shape.
The proposed device allows one to find the median of the obtained distribution and specific surface area of particles in accordance with their shapes, differential particle size distribution, cumulative particle size distribution function, weight percentage of particle fractions, particle number percentage, and formfactor for each measurement range.
The author of the article also proposes a device allowing one to determine the permeability in low-permeability rocks based on a combination of data from different sensors (pressure, differential pressure, and temperature) in a single system for collecting and analyzing information. This allows one to automatically maintain the pressure (for any sensors, depending on the method) in the experiments.