Monte Carlo Approach for Estimating Density and Atomic Number From Dual‐Energy Computed Tomography Images of Carbonate Rocks

We develop a new Monte Carlo‐based inversion method for estimating electron density and effective atomic number from 3‐D dual‐energy computed tomography (CT) core scans. The method accounts for uncertainties in X‐ray attenuation coefficients resulting from the polychromatic nature of X‐ray beam sources of medical and industrial scanners, in addition to delivering uncertainty estimates of inversion products. Estimation of electron density and effective atomic number from CT core scans enables direct deterministic or statistical correlations with salient rock properties for improved petrophysical evaluation; this condition is specifically important in media such as vuggy carbonates where CT resolution better captures core heterogeneity that dominates fluid flow properties. Verification tests of the inversion method performed on a set of highly heterogeneous carbonate cores yield very good agreement with in situ borehole measurements of density and photoelectric factor. Key Points We present a new Monte Carlo‐based method for inverting dual‐energy computed tomography scans from rock cores New method gives robust estimation of electron density and effective atomic number from CT core scans Inversion has potential application for improved petrophysical evaluation of in situ borehole measurements