Analysis of Multiscale Porosity at the Coso Geothermal Field | NIST

The multiscale pore structure of the rocks making up a geothermal reservoir and the mineralogy associated with those pores are critical factors for estimating a number of reservoir properties including fluid mass in place, permeability, and capillary pressures as well as geochemical and thermal interactions between the rock and the fluid. This paper describes the results of a combined neutron scattering and imaging analysis of samples from a well on the east flank of the Coso reservoir in California and delineates the close relationship between alteration mineralogy and multiscale porosity.