Rock Physics Systems Ltd

Company Profile

As the economic imperative for extracting greater proportions of oil and gas from a field have intensified, and societal demands for improved control of sub-surface pollutants have grown, so companies have needed an improved understanding of the way in which fluids are stored in and move through rocks. Rock Physics Systems Ltd. (RPS) have the technology available for the novel rock physics testing instruments and systems which are vital to understand fluid-rock systems and manage sub-surface reservoirs and waste repositories. Measuring the storage capacity of rock and flow of fluids through rock is essential for:

• Production engineering of oil and gas fields. Hydrocarbons are stored in the pores of reservoir rocks and move through crack networks. To maximize production, characterization of storage and fluid transport properties of sample rock cores through direct measurement under simulated reservoir conditions is becoming increasingly important.
• Safe construction of nuclear waste repositories. Disposal of the massive quantities of intermediate level waste in deep repositories is the only alternative to surface storage. But safe design of repositories requires detailed understanding of how permeable to fluids the surrounding rock mass is and how that may change over a long time scale.
• Management of sub-surface aquifers. Contaminants entering aquifers are now posing a major societal problem, i.e., organic pollutants and effluent from disused mines in industrialized countries, and brine infusion in the Middle East. The corrosive effects of contaminants on rock necessitates direct measurements on sample rock cores.

Rock Physics Systems Ltd. was set up eight years ago by the principals of the Mineral, Ice and Rock Physics Laboratory (MIRP), University College London. They are internationally renowned for their excellence in research in laboratory testing and measurement of the mechanical, physical and fluid flow properties of rocks, with over 8 decades of collective experience. They operate at the edge of current measurement and control technology and have therefore had to design and develop their own test and measurement instruments and systems. The Company's mission is to exploit commercially these instruments and testing systems.

• To develop commercially and market scientific instruments, systems and techniques designed and built in the course of research undertaken in the Mineral, Ice and Rock Physics Laboratory (R&IP) of the Department of Earth Sciences, University College London.
• To licence instrument designs from members of the laboratory ( and others in the Department) and manufacture them to customer specifications , undertaking the necessary product development and additional design input.
• Rock Physics Systems Ltd. (RPS) will offer training to customers' scientists and technicians in the use of rock physics machines and instruments in association with the MIRP Laboratory, tied to the sales of equipment.
• The Company, by collaborating with established UK testing machine manufacturers, will enable companies and universities to acquire state of art rock physics equipment by supply of complete rock physics testing ensembles.
• By utilising profits generated by the Company, the development of new market areas for the products will be researched. Technical improvements or adaption of the products will be incorporated into the designs to stimulate the newly developed market.

The research into the physics of rocks in the laboratory leads to the requirement of sophisticated and unique equipment. This equipment is needed to simulate the conditions found in rocks at great depth in the earths crust and to enable greater understanding of the earth's physical processes. In the Mineral Ice and Rock Physics Laboratory (MIRP) in the Research School of Geological and Geophysical Sciences at University College London, equipment has been developed to allow measurement of anisotropic physical properties such as transport(permeabiliy and electrical conductivity), and fracture and elastic wave properties. These measurements on various rock types are acquired during deformation at simulated upper crustal conditions.

Rock Physics Ensemble

In the past laboratory based experiments simultanting the conditions found in the lower crust were limited. The limitations were the number of physical parameters that could be measured during an experiment. This was due to a limit in the number of transducers that could be fitted to the specimen, mainly due to the specimen size. The Rock Physics Ensemble, developed by the MIRP, is designed to overcome those resrictions by using much larger specimens and therefore allowing many more transducers and detectors to be fitted. Consquently a whole range of physical parameters can measured simutanteously.

High Pressure/Temperature Fracture Toughness Rig

This apparatus was developed to measure the fracture toughness of rocks found in mid-ocean ridges. The rig comprises of a pressure vessel that can simulate the conditions found at a ridge; high temperature and high pressure in a highly corrosive environment - sea water. The understanding of mid-ocean ridge processes has been advanced by data acquired from this apparatus.

Anisotropic Wave Velocity Measurement Apparatus

Data from seismic studies, borehole logs and laboratory measurements all show that the physical properties of crustal rocks are anisotropic. In fact, anisotropy is a fundamental property of rocks that can arise simply from petrogenesis and diagenesis, but also commonly results from the anisotropic stress field in the crust. This stress anisotropy leads to an aligned crack fabric that, in turn, leads to seismic velocity anisotropy and permeability anisotropy. However, by measuring the velocity of waves propagating through an oriented rock core from a vertical borehole as a function of azimuth, it is possible to determine the anisotropy and to infer both the maximum and minimum horizontal stress orientations and the directions of maximum and minimum fluid permeability.

Pore Fluid Intensifiers/Permeameters

Rock physics and rock mechanics Research laboratories have been striving to achieve an accurate method of measuring and controlling the physical changes to the pore volume and pore pressure of a rock specimen under stress. Changes in specimen porosity and permeability whilst the rock specimen is under hydrostatic and deviatoric stress, can result in large changes in pore fluid conditions although the measured change may be a small percentage of the total pore volume or pore pressure. These measurements require the use of high accuracy transducers and control methods with high resolution and repeatability.

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