Reservoir Rock Properties Lab.
/ Porosity Tutorial
Example: A carbonate whole core (3 inches by 6 inches) is placed in cell two of Boyle’s law device.
Each of the cells has a volume of 1000 cc. Cell 1 is pressured to 50 psig. Cell one is evacuated. The
cells are connected and the resulting pressure is 28.1 psig. Calculate the porosity of the rock. (Is
it absolute or effective porosity?)
1
Example: A limestone sample weighs 241 g. The limestone sample coated with paraffin was found
to weigh 249.5 g. The coated sample when immersed in a partially filled graduated cylinder
displaced 125 cm3 of water. The density of the paraffin is 0.9 g/cm3. (limestone density = 2.71
g/cm3)
What is the porosityof the rock? Does the process measure total or effective porosity?
2
Example: A core sample coated with paraffin was immersed in Russell tube. The dry sample
weighed 20.0 gm. The dry sample coated with paraffin weighed 20.9 gm. The paraffin coated
sample displaced 10.9 cc of liquid. Assume the density of solid paraffin is 0.9 gm/cc. what is the
bulk volume of the sample?
Example: The core sample of previous example was stripped of the paraffin coat, crushed to
grain size and immersed in the Russell tube. The volume of the grains was 7.7 cc. What was the
porosity of the sample? Is this effective or total porosity?
3
Example: Calculate the porosity of the core sample when the following information is available:
Dry weight of sample = 427.3 gm
Weight of the sample when saturated with water = 448.6 gm
Density of water = 1.0 gm/cc
Weight of water saturated sample immersed in water = 269.6 gm
