Salinity effect on the spectral induced polarization porosimetry: theory and experiment

Abstract:

Spectral induced polarization (SIP) porosimetry is a new technique for characterizing the pore size distribution of a porous medium. The induced polarization of porous media under low frequencies is mainly attributed to the relaxation of the mineral/fluid interface, i.e., the electrical double layer (EDL, including both Stern and diffuse layers). Currently, the salinity effect is not considered while applying the SIP porosimetry although a number of experiments have shown the water salinity could affect the relaxation of EDL. In this study, we conducted SIP measurement of a Portland sandstone sample with a broad range of salinities. The relaxation time distributions of the sample at different salinities are obtained by inverting the measured SIP responses using the least-square method with optimized damping parameter. The modal relaxation time shows a non-negligible dependence on the salinity/fluid conductivity. The salinity dependence can be explained by considering the ions exchange between Stern and diffuse layers during polarization, i.e., diffuse layer polarization (DLP). It is also shown that the SIP porosimetry could underestimate the pore size if only Stern layer polarization is considered. It is therefore suggested to include DLP while interpreting the SIP porosimetry data in order to give consistent pore size information with other techniques such as nuclear magnetic resonance and mercury injection capillary porosimetry.