High‐precision tracking of sandstone deformation from micro‐CT images

Elastic properties of sandstones can be highly pressure dependent. However, the pressure-induced deformation of intact sandstones in X-ray micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT) images are below the resolving power of conventional image analysis methods. Also, most digital rock physics studies of the elastic properties operate with micro-CT images acquired at ambient pressure. Here, we perform a comprehensive analysis of an intact sandstone sample with pronounced stress-sensitivity. A purpose-built X-ray-transparent pressure cell enables scanning micro-CT images at confining pressures of up to 36 MPa. To detect the small pressure-induced changes from these images, we design an overall deformation detection workflow with slice-searching technique. We apply this workflow to a set of micro-CT images of a 2 × 2 × 2 mm sample scanned at several pressures with a voxel size length of ∼1 μm. The results give the static modulus of 2.78 GPa, which is ∼0.5 times of the dynamic modulus derived from ultrasonic measurements. This ratio is consistent with literature data, showing the accuracy of the deformation detection workflow. Images scanned at different pressures are then segmented into two-phase labels. The porosity change detected from segmented labels is consistent with the value derived from static modulus using poroelastic theory. The two-phase segmented images are utilized to simulate the elastic properties with a finite element method. Most of the pressure dependency of elastic moduli shown in ultrasonic measurements is caused by closure of compliant pores at grain contacts, which cannot be resolved by the micro-CT. The accuracy improvement of the estimated elastic properties from images scanned at higher pressures is negligible.