Petrophysical initialization of core-scale reactive transport simulations on Indiana limestones: Pore-scale characterization, spatial autocorrelations, and representative elementary volume analysis

Initializations of the petrophysical parameters significantly affect the results of reactive transport simulations on unstable dissolution fronts. As the phenomenon arises from the inherent heterogeneity of the rocks, heterogenous initialization of the petrophysical fields is needed to model such a phenomenon. While modeling of unstable dissolution fronts has been extensively studied in the past, the geostatistical information required to initialize the heterogeneous petrophysical fields is usually assumed and still missing. The objective of this paper is to acquire such information for Indiana limestones on a core-scale. This is done by combining high resolution tomography with pore scale calculations to determine: i) the rock minimum representative volume (REV), ii) the frequency distributions of the petrophysical parameters, namely; porosity, permeability, and reactive surface area, iii) the relationships between the petrophysical parameters, and iv) the rock spatial correlation model and lengths. The results obtained should help reduce the uncertainties associated with petrophysical initialization of core-scale reactive transport simulations of carbonate rocks in general, and Indiana limestones in particular.