Electrical conductivity of unsaturated porous media: Pore‐scale model and comparison with laboratory data

This paper presents a novel pore‐scale approach for the derivation of electrical properties of porous media. In this approach we create a digital porous medium on the basis of experimental grain‐size distribution data and apply a drainage simulator based on pore‐morphology analysis. Then we simulate via finite difference discretization the electrical charge flow within the two‐fluid and solid pore‐scale distributions, and derive the effective resistivity of the porous medium. Simulation results have been compared with resistivity data from a UK Permo‐Triassic Sandstone (Sherwood S.). Agreement between measured and simulated bulk conductivities at different saturation values is excellent; this confirms the validity of the adopted approach, and its underlying assumptions.