LIAG / Research / Methods / Petrophysics 

Petrophysics

In addition to characterising rock samples using classic petrophysical parameters, another focus of the research activities is nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR), spectral induced polarisation (SIP), as well as X-ray computer tomography (µ-CT) in combination with digital petrophysics. The research topics looked at using these methods therefore not only have a marked basic research character, but also open up innovative applications. This methodological and thematic package is unique within the German research community, and also opens up major points of reference with international research groups. In this way, topics such as pore spaces and pore structures, (microscopic) boundary surfaces and processes, as well as the numerical simulation of processes at a pore scale, yield essential findings on the physical-spatial relationships and processes at a µm to cm scale. Examples of the processes being investigated are hydraulic transport in 1-phase and 2-phase systems, as well as the interaction of fluid-matrix boundary surfaces and the associated phenomena (e.g. boundary surface conductivities). The findings acquired in this way are used as a fundamental basis for macroscopic, i.e. large-scale, application-centric physical characterisation, e.g. for determining the hydraulic transmissivity of groundwater systems from combined NMR-SIP measurements, or to understand the genesis and development over time of karst structures as special geological structures.