Case Study: Visualization Science Group (VSG) achieves nanoscale pore-scale flow and permeability analysis with COMSOL Multiphysics

Visualization Science Group - Customer Case Study

Visualization Science Group (VSG) needed a faster, more detailed way to determine porosity and permeability in shale samples so operators could predict how fluids would penetrate rock formations without costly, time-consuming physical lab tests. To do this they combined VSG’s Avizo 3D Analysis and FIB‑SEM imaging with Comsol’s Multiphysics modeling and simulation software to move from nanoscale image stacks to a simulation-ready digital pore geometry.

Using FIB‑SEM and Avizo to reconstruct and segment the 3D pore network, Comsol then ran flow simulations (velocity inlet/pressure outlet with no‑slip walls) to compute average velocities and pressures and derive absolute permeability, diffusivity and other properties. Comsol’s simulations produced detailed pressure distributions, velocity vectors and streamlines that Avizo visualized, enabling quantitative permeability estimates from models with nanometer-resolution voxels and delivering a faster, cheaper workflow that yields more information than traditional lab experiments.

Visualization Science Group

Shuang Zhang

Visualization Science Group