EarthRef.org Reference Database (ERR)
Development and Maintenance by the EarthRef.org Database Team

Detailed Reference Information
Tidwell & Wilson 1997
Tidwell, V.C. and Wilson, J.L. (1997). Laboratory method for investigating permeability upscaling. Water Resources Research 33: doi: 10.1029/97WR00804. issn: 0043-1397.

The purpose of this work is to describe, evaluate, and demonstrate a laboratory-based method for physically investigating permeability upscaling. The method makes use of a simple instrument, the gas permeameter, to acquire rapid, precise, and nondestructive permeability measurements from heterogeneous blocks of dry rock. Critical to investigating permeability upscaling is the ability to acquire data at multiple sample supports subject to consistent boundary conditions and flow geometry. Such measurements, spanning almost 4 orders of magnitude on a per volume basis, are made with the gas permeameter by simply varying the size of the permeameter tip seal. The precision and consistency of measurements made in this way were evaluated using a suite of data collected from blocks of three relatively homogeneous materials: Berea Sandstone and two synthetic rocks. Results suggest that measurement error is small (approximately ¿1% of the measured permeability) and consistent, and measurements made at different sample supports are free from systematic bias. To demonstrate the ability of this method to measure and quantify upscaling processes, limited data sets were collected with four different-sized tip seals from the Berea Sandstone block. Analysis reveals distinct and consistent trends diagnostic of permeability upscaling relating the sample mean (increased), variance (decreased), and semivariogram to increasing sample support.¿ 1997 American Geophysical Union

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Hydrology, Instruments and techniques, Physical Properties of Rocks, Permeability and porosity, Hydrology, Stochastic processes
Journal
Water Resources Research
http://www.agu.org/wrr/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
2000 Florida Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009-1277
USA
1-202-462-6900
1-202-328-0566
service@agu.org
Click to clear formClick to return to previous pageClick to submit