Equipment

 

At GGE, high-quality technical equipment is available for measuring a variety of rock physical properties in the lab and for measuring geophysical parameters in the field and in boreholes. This equipment is used both in research and contractual work and for training students in a petrophysics lab practical, a borehole logging practical, and a geophysical field practical.

Apart from petrophysical measurements and geophysical borehole measurements, research at GGE is based mainly on numerical simulations. Accordingly, several high-performance computers are available for numerical simulations. The computers are partly integrated into the high-performance cluster of RWTH Aachen University which is used by our group (see High Perfomance Computing). Additionally, for the visualization of numerical simulation results we utilize a Picasso 3D immersive Flipchart - a visualization tool for 3D stereographic projection which creates an immersive environment.

With respect to numerical simulation technology, one focus of research is to develop programs for the 3D-simulation of reactive flow, species, and heat transport as well as for 3D inverse parameter estimation. Please see below for the software developed at GGE and the commercial code used in research.

Lab equipment

A wide range of technical laboratory equipment is available for measurements of physical rock properties on samples and for the corresponding sample preparation. Properties studied comprise: thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, electrical resistivity, ultrasonic velocity, porosity, NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance), IS (impedance spectroscopy), magnetic susceptibility, and natural Gamma radiation. Moreover, we have equipment for studying NMR, electrical, and two-phase flow properties of rock samples under elevated pressure and temperature.

List of the lab equipment available at GGE

Geophysical field equipment

Geophysical properties in the Earth can be measured in the field either in boreholes or by non-invasive geophysical methods from the surface. GGE owns a borehole logging instrument for measurements up to a depth of 1500 m which comprises tools for electrical resistivity, sonic velocity, density, and natural spectral Gamma radiation (K, U, Th) of rocks, for borehole diameter and shape, and for fluid salinity, temperature, and pressure.

For measurements at the Earth’s surface, equipment is available at GGE for:

  • seismic velocity – 24 channel seismic instrument;
  • resistivity – high-speed resistivity system with capacitive coupling;
  • frequency-dependent complex electrical resistivity – 20 channel (Impedance spectroscopy) instrument;
  • nuclear magnetic resonance and relaxation (for inferring water content and pore size distribution) – SNMR (surface nuclear magnetic resonance) instrument;
  • magnetic field intensity – magnetometer;
  • magnetic susceptibility.

List of the field equipment available at GGE

Software

Software developed at GGE:

SHEMAT - An Aquifer Simulation Tool for Coupled Flow, Heat Transfer, Transport and Chemical Water-Rock Interaction. Detailed description of SHEMAT

Peclet - Matlab source code for Péclet number analysis written by A. Zschocke based on the original FORTRAN code written by C.Clauser. Download Peclet

Aixjoint - Matlab-Script and example data for ground surface temperature inversion from borehole temperatures. The code was written originally in FORTRAN by Beltrami & Mareschal and later modified and converted to MATLAB by Clauser and Hartmann. Download Aixjoint

Commercial software used at GGE:

  • Interactive Petrophysics, kindly provided by Senergy for academic use
  • Techlog, kindly provided by Schlumberger for academic use
  • Petrel, kindly provided by Schlumberger for academic use
  • 3D GeoModeller
  • PetraSim/TOUGH2
  • Eclipse, kindly provided by Schlumberger for academic use
  • Geo Dict
  • Avizo Fire
  • Res 2D/3D Inv
  • Reflex W