A Comprehensive Review of Digital Rock Physics: From Tomographic Images to Pore Network Modeling

The growth of hydrocarbon resources dramatically influences the energy market's future. Digital Rock Physics (DRP) is a scientifically accepted approach for evaluating reservoirs' rock qualities. In theory, knowing the geographical distribution of the linked pore space enables one to anticipate the characteristics of a rock sample. But upscaling predictions systematically hasn't been possible yet due to restrictions on unique microscopic resolution and approximated measurements. Getting information about the structure through tomographic pictures of porous materials is an essential part of porous media investigation. The ability to extract pore networks is especially beneficial because it allows for pore network modeling simulation studies, which can also be helpful for various tasks ranging from modeling transportation characteristics to predicting the effectiveness of the whole equipment. This paper deals with a comprehensive overview of the importance, steps and methods of simulating the porous medium using pore network modeling and all their necessary prerequisites. For this purpose, instead of using continuum-based modeling it has been tried to enter in the pore scale and review the steps of modeling that happen in that according to image-based methods mentioned by previous researchers, which are very useful for modeling complex geological materials.