PETROPHYSICS, VOL. 48, NO. 2 (APRIL 2007); P.

104–120; 17 FIGURES, 3 TABLES

Pore-Scale Analysis of the Waxman-Smits Shaly-Sand Conductivity Model1

Guodong Jin2, Carlos Torres-Verdín2, Sarath Devarajan2, Emmanuel Toumelin2,3, and E. C. Thomas4

ABSTRACT
Waxman-Smits and dual-water models of electrical
conductivity of shaly sands account for the dual conduc-
tive pathways formed by pore brine and clay mineral
exchange cations, while Archie’s equations describe the
electrical conductivity behavior of clay-free rocks. These
empirical models are widely used in the interpretation of
resistivity logs acquired in homogeneous reservoir rocks.
However, the models are not explicit in their predictions
of electrical conductivity with respect to rock structure,
spatial fluid distribution in the pore space, wettability, or
clay mineral distribution. The objective of this paper is to
quantify the influence of exchange cations associated
with hydrated clay minerals, salinity of pore bulk water,
and water saturation on the electrical conductivity of
shaly siliciclastic rocks. We accomplish this objective by
cal cu lat ing excess con duc tiv i ties asso ci ated with
hydrated clay minerals for explicit pore geometries of
brine- and hydrocarbon-saturated shaly granular rocks. In
so doing we introduce synthetic pore-scale representa-
tions intended to reproduce experimental observations of
electrical conductivity of shaly sands.
The synthetic pore-scale models are constructed to rep-
resent homogeneous shaly sands that include the struc-
tural effects of compaction, cementation, and distribution
of grain-coating clay minerals. Our pore-scale model is
implemented on the digitized representative of rock sam-
ples, which allows us to consider arbitrary media bound-
aries. Two-phase immiscible fluids are geometrically dis-
tributed in the pore space using the ordinary percolation
algorithm. We introduce grain-coating hydrated clay min-
erals and their corresponding electric double layer in the
synthetic rock models with a grain “shell” of variable
dimensions and diffusivity with respect to those of
pore-filling brine. Waxman-Smits formation factors and
resistivity indices are calculated directly with random
walk simulations of late-time diffusion within the conduc-
tive space formed by the pore water and clay mineral
exchange cations in the digitized shaly-sand samples.
Simulations with this simple model correctly reproduce
the nonlinear behavior of rock conductivity at low and
high salinity, and are consistent with reported laboratory
measurements.
Keywords: shaly sand, pore-scale model, conductiv-
ity, clays

Manuscript received by the Editor November 10, 2006; revised manuscript received January 26, 2007.
1
Originally presented at the SPWLA 47th Annual Logging Symposium, Veracruz, Mexico, June 4–7, 2006, Paper M.
2
The University of Texas at Austin, Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering, One University Station, Mail Stop C0300,
Austin, Texas, 78712; E-mail: gjin@mail.utexas.edu, cverdin@mail.utexas.edu, sarath@mail.utexas.edu.
3
Currently with Chevron; 11111 S. Wilcrest Dr., Houston, TX, 77099; E-mail: toumelin@chevron.com
4
Bayou Petrophysics; P. O. Box 1027, Tomball, TX, 77377; E-mail: ecthomas@charter.net
©2007 Society of Petrophysicists and Well Log Analysts. All rights reserved.

104 PETROPHYSICS April 2007

 Pore-Scale Analysis of the Waxman-Smits Shaly-Sand Conductivity Model
INTRODUCTION
The most fundamental empirical relationship for inter-
preting electrical conductivity measurements in reservoir
rocks was experimentally advanced by Archie (1942) as
sw a tive rock matrix. Using a diffusion current model, Sen
FR = = , (1)
so f m
where the formation resistivity factor is denoted by FR, and
the conductivities of the saturating water (or brine) and the
water-saturated rock are denoted by sw and so, respectively.
The formation factor FR relates to the total interconnected
rock porosity f and the cementation (lithology) exponent m,
with the latter depending mainly on the degree of consolida-
tion of the rock. The coefficient a is a constant that depends
on tortuosity, shape of the pores, and their connectivity.
Archie’s law is applicable only to water-wet clean or clay
mineral-free sands, i.e. non-conductive rock matrices
(Klein and Sill, 1982). However, laboratory measurements
(Waxman and Smits, 1968; Waxman and Thomas, 1974) for
fully water-saturated shaly sands have shown that the rela-
tionship between so and sw is strongly nonlinear as reflected
by a convex-upward increase in so as sw ®0. This nonlinear
behavior observed at low salinity is attributed to the addi-
tional conductivity resulting from the exchange cations
associated with hydrated-clay minerals (HCM) (Waxman
and Smits, 1968; Clavier et al., 1977, 1984; Bussian, 1983;
Johnson and Sen, 1988; Revil and Glover, 1997, 1998;
Tabbagh et al., 2002). When clay minerals are present, ionic
substitutions within the lattices result in an excess of nega-
tive charge near the HCM surface. The counterions (or cat-
ions) required to balance these charges form a thin “electri-
cal double layer” around the HCM surface, where the
hydrated cations are in rapid exchange with those in the
pore bulk water (Clavier et al., 1977, 1984). Electrical con-
duction within this layer can contribute substantially to the
electrical conductivity of the whole porous system at low
salinity or/and high temperature.
Many empirical and theoretical models were proposed to
describe the role of water and clay content on the electrical
conductivity of porous media (Waxman and Smits, 1968;
Bussian, 1983; Clavier et al., 1984; Sen and Kan, 1987;
Lima and Sharma, 1990; Revil and Glover, 1998). To be
useful for petrophysical interpretation, these models should
be able to capture the nonlinear (convex-upward) behavior
of the plot of so versus sw at low values of salinity as well as
the non-zero value of so when sw = 0. Bussian (1983) pro-
posed a general model that related the electrical properties
of any heterogeneous two-component mixture to the prop-
erties of the individual components. Lima and Sharma
(1990) conceived of the surface conductivity of clays as an
April 2007 PETROPHYSICS
electrically equivalent effective volume conductivity. Kim
and Torquato (1990) and McCarthy (1990) calculated the
effective conductivity of random mixtures by reducing
them to a multi-component conductivity problem. A com-
mon feature of these models is that they assume a conduc-
(1987) demonstrated that the nonlinearity of so versus sw
follows as a consequence of the distribution of the electric
field between the pore bulk water and clay-bound water
regions. Revil and Glover (1998) advanced an effective
medium theory that accounts for the different behavior of
anions and cations in these two conductive regions.
The most widely used log-interpretation methods for
shaly sands in the oil indus try are based on the
Waxman-Smits and the dual-water models (Waxman and
Smits, 1968; Clavier et al., 1984). Both models assume that
exchange cations associated with clay minerals are the
agents behind clay conductance. The pore space in shaly
sands is composed of two zones (Clavier et al., 1977, 1984;
Klein and Sill, 1982). The first is occupied by water that is
not affected by surface charges of clay minerals. The sec-
ond is the electrical double-layer zone in near proximity to
the HCM surface, where the ionic distribution is controlled
by the unbalanced charge defects of clay minerals. The ini-
tial curvature of the so – sw plot is attributed to an increase
of the HCM counterion mobility and to the compression of
the double-layer thickness with increasing salinity of the
electrolyte.
An alternative interpretation of these electrochemical
concepts leads to the proposition that different values of
electrical conductivity exist close to the grain surface com-
pared to the electrical conductivity of the bulk pore fluid.
Almon (1979) suggests that the conductivity in the dou-
ble-layer zone be an order of magnitude larger than the bulk
pore water conductivity even for moderately saline waters.
A decrease in salinity is expected to emphasize the relative
contribution from the HCM counterions in the double-layer
zone, regardless of the model interpretation (Winsauer and
McCardell, 1953). Revil et al. (1998) and Leroy and Revil
(2004) assign a specific surface conductivity in lieu of a
clay mineral continuum by integrating the “anomalous”
surface conductivity over the double-layer thickness. An
analogous approach has been used for modeling the con-
ductivity of the interfacial zone in cement mortar (Garboczi
et al., 1995).
However, the nature of the excess conductivity associ-
ated with the presence of clay minerals requires further
investigation. There are properties specific to the dou-
ble-layer that warrant a careful appraisal of parameters cho-
sen and results obtained. One such property concerns the
choice of the true thickness d of an individual HCM cation
double-layer. This is unlike the mortar conductivity prob-
105
 Jin et al.
lem (Garboczi et al., 1995), where the width of the interfa-
cial zone is comparable to the grain radius. Clay minerals
do stack up on top of one other to form layers as thick as 12
mm. However, individual double-layer thicknesses are still
in the sub-micron range. Thus, d is the thickness of a repre-
sentative volume continuum that would describe the cumu-
lative effect from surface phenomena at each double-layer.
Likewise, there is no simplistic relation that associates sur-
face conductance with volumetric excess HCM exchange
cation conductivity. Parameter calibration is crucial owing
to the freely varying nature of d.
The electrical response of shaly sands is also determined
by the distribution, amount, shape and type of clay miner-
als, the salinity of pore water, and water saturation. It is
essential to develop a clear understanding of the effect these
factors have on the electrical conductivity of shaly sands. In
this paper we introduce a new pore-scale method based
upon the three-dimensional (3D) digital representation of
the porous medium aimed at investigating the effect of the
electrical conductivity contrast between bulk water and
clay-bound water, and their relative amount on the shaly
sand con duc tiv ity. First, we briefly describe the
Waxman-Smits model, which forms the theoretical basis of
our study. In order to illustrate our simulation approach, we
consider a clean, well-sorted, quartz-cemented, water-wet
shaly-sand model. The geometry of the model consists of
electrically insulating spherical grains coated with a HCM
counterion double-layer of thickness d, conductivity scl,
and the bulk pore electrolyte of conductivity sw. Electrical
conductivity of shaly sands is calculated directly from ran-
dom walk simulations of late-time diffusion. Subsequently,
we describe the algorithm of random walk simulation and
our implementation on the digitized rock samples. Simula-
tion results are presented and analyzed for two modeled
shaly sands with different values of porosity.
THE WAXMAN AND SMITS MODEL
Waxman and Smits (W-S, 1968) proposed a physical
model to describe the dependence of shaly-sand conductiv-
ity on clay content, expressed as cation exchange capacity
per unit pore volume. The W-S model has become the most
fully developed and widely accepted approach to the under-
standing of the electrical conductivity of shaly-sand forma-
tions. The main assump tions of the W-S model are
(Bussian, 1983):
1. The electrical conductivities associated with both bulk
water in the pore space and HCM exchange cations con-
tribute to the electrical conductivity of shaly-sand for-
mations in a manner analogous to a parallel circuit,
2. The electric current transported by HCM exchange ions
travels along the same tortuous path as the electrical cur-
106 PETROPHYSICS
rent attributed to ions in the bulk water. This behavior is
due to rapid exchange of HCM cations between the clay
mineral surface and bulk water. In other words, the
tortuosity is the same for all ions,
3. The conductivity of HCM exchange cations, scl, is
dependent upon the conductivity of bulk water, sw.
For fully water-saturated shaly sands, the W-S model is
defined as
1
so = ( sw + scl ) , (2)
FR*
where the shaly-sand formation resistivity factor, FR* ,
relates to total interconnected rock porosity and is inde-
pendent of formation-water salinity. The value of FR* can be
determined at high salinity where surface electrical conduc-
tion can be neglected. The conductivity of HCM exchange
cations scl is expressed as
s cl = BQv , (3)
where Qv is the volume concentration of HCM exchange
cations (equivalent/liter or meq/ml) and B represents the
average mobility of the HCM counterions near their sur-
faces (mho cm2/meq), which at 25°C is given by
B = 0.046[1- 0.6 exp(-s w / 0.013)]. (4)
The W-S model captures the nonlinear behavior of so versus
sw at low values of salinity by allowing the counterion
mobility B to increase exponentially at low values of sw
until it attains a constant and maximum value at high values
of salinity. When sw = 0, the W-S model gives a finite value
of so, i.e., the rock is still conductive even if it is saturated
with fresh water. While B accounts for the well understood
electrochemical phenomenon of ionic mobility, it is the one
free parameter that is used in the empirical W-S regression.
Regardless of the phenomenological accuracy of equation
(4), it is worthwhile recognizing that the product BQv repre-
sents the experimental excess conductivity due to the HCM
exchange cations at various values of salinity and can be
used to calibrate a proposed conductivity model in response
to type and amount of clay, and type of clay distribution in
the pore space.
Another parameter of interest is the “excess conductiv-
ity” associated with the HCM exchange cations. For better
understanding, equation (2) is rewritten in its general form
as
sw
so = (1 + X ) , (5)
FR*
where the dimensionless excess conductivity X, defined as
April 2007
 Pore-Scale Analysis of the Waxman-Smits Shaly-Sand Conductivity Model
BQv
X= , (6)
sw
is a characteristic variable used directly or otherwise
included in most shaly-sand con duc tiv ity mod els
(Worthington, 1985). Grain conductivity models (Bussian,
1983; Lima and Sharma, 1990) use X in power laws involv-
ing the cementation exponent. Realistic values of X at low
values of salinity vary with bulk conductivity sw depending
on Qv. At very high values of salinity this ratio approaches
zero. Figure 1 shows typical values of X calculated as a
function of sw and Qv.
MODEL OF SHALY SAND
We construct a model of shaly sand with a dense random
packing of mono-sized spheres. For simplicity, we use the
real packing constructed by Finney (1968), who measured
the spatial coordinates of 8000 balls comprising the central
part of the packing, in which 25000 mono-sized spherical
ball bearings were packed densely. The size of ball bearings
is 200 mm. Our simulation domain consists of 1000 spheres,
whose spatial coordinates were obtained from Finney’s data
set (Figure 2). The initial porosity is approximately 36.5%.
In addition, we assume that grains are electrically insulat-
ing.
Cementation is the process of mineral nucleation and
precipitation that binds the rock grains. Depending on the
chemical and crystallographic properties, cements precipi-
tate on the grain surfaces and affect the specific surface area
and tortuosity of the rock. However, it is not an easy task to
predict the location and chemical composition of the vari-
FIG. 1 Plots of dimensionless excess conductivity X as a func-
tion of sw and Qv.
April 2007 PETROPHYSICS
ous cements inside the pore space of consolidated rocks
(Bloch and Helmold, 1995). In this study, we assume that
cement, independent of its composition, is homogeneously
deposited on the grain surfaces within the sample according
to a proposed cement overgrowth algorithm (Roberts and
Schwartz, 1985; Bryant et al., 1993; Jin et al., 2003, 2006a).
For simplicity, all grains in Figure 2 are allowed to grow
uniformly, i.e. without moving their centers, to render low
values of porosity. The increased sphere’s radius simulates
the growth of quartz cement (Schwartz and Kimminau,
1987).
Dispersed clay minerals in sandstones are of three mor-
phological types: (1) pore lining, (2) pore bridging, and (3)
discrete particles (Wilson and Pittman, 1977; Neasham,
1977). Pore-lining clays are attached to pore walls to form a
relatively continuous and thin (£ 12 mm) clay mineral coat-
ing (Neasham, 1977). In the model used here, we have cho-
sen to describe the electrical properties of shaly sands with
a “simple” grain coating model (Johnson et al., 1986; Lima
and Sharma, 1990), in which a clay mineral shell with thick-
ness d and corresponding HCM cations is added to the elec-
trically insulating grains. Figure 3 shows the idealized grain
coating model, where d is the thickness of a representative
volume continuum intended to synthesize the cumulative
electrical effect from surface phenomena due to the corre-
FIG. 2 Graphical illustration of a sand pack based on 1000
mono-size spherical grains. The dimensions of the packing are
2100 mm x 2100 mm x 2100 mm, with grain diameter equal to 220
mm and the porosity approximately equal to 36.5%.
107
 Jin et al.
sponding double layer. This thickness is small compared to
the dimensions of both pores and grains.
Another interpretation of the clay shell thickness d is that
the grain surface is electrically charged where electrical
neutrality requires an equal concentration of counterions
that are confined to the surface within a distance d. These
additional HCM counterions contribute to the electrical
conductivity of the shaly sand beyond the contribution due
to bulk water. The water in the d zone is called the
clay-bound water, similar to the concept of the double layer
developed by Clavier et al. (1977, 1984). As the salinity of
the pore water increases, d decreases and the surface cat-
ions are packed closer together near the surface (Johnson
and Sen, 1988; Sposito, 2004).
To construct a 3D model of the pore space, we discretize
the macroscopic cube with grains in the form of a 3D array
of identical microscopic cubes (voxels). Our convention is
that a voxel is an element of the pore space if its center is
within the pore space; otherwise, it becomes an element of
the solid skeleton. Figure 4 displays the corresponding
discretized pore space of the grain packing shown in Figure
2, with voxel dimensions of 250 x 250 x 250, and with the
side length of each voxel equal to 6 mm. Porosity can be
directly evaluated from the fraction of void-space voxels in
the rock image, here approximately equal to 36.5%. The
porosity calculated this way depends on the spatial resolu-
FIG. 3 Idealized grain-coating clay mineral morphology shows
the spatial separation between the HCM exchange cations (or
clay-bound water) and bulk water regions. The size of the shell
of HCM exchange cations relative to the grain radius is exagger-
ated for better illustration.
108 PETROPHYSICS
tion of the discretization. However, such dependence is
negligible if the spatial resolution is sufficiently high. For
our study, we determined a small voxel size of 6 mm from
sensitivity studies of calculated permeability (Jin et al.,
2006b).
RANDOM WALK ALGORITHM AND
IMPLEMENTATION
Steady-state flow of electric current through a porous
medium saturated with an electrolyte is governed by the dif-
ferential equation (Revil and Glover, 1997)
Ñ× [ sÑF ]= 0 , (7)
where F is the local electrical potential. Additionally, the
no-flux boundary condition is enforced at the solid-void
interface when the solid phase is assumed to be insulating,
i.e.
n× ÑF = 0 , (8)
where n is the unit normal vector outward from the solid to
the pore space. The solution of this problem in terms of the
conductivity of the porous medium so is given by
j =-s o ÑF , (9)
FIG. 4 Pore space volume of the grain pack shown in Figure 2.
The number of voxels is 250 x 250 x 250. Voxel resolution is 6
mm and the porosity is approximately 36.5%.
April 2007
 Pore-Scale Analysis of the Waxman-Smits Shaly-Sand Conductivity Model

where j and ÑF are the macroscopic electrical current sw 1 Dw

density and potential gradient vectors, respectively.
The differential equation (7) can be numerically solved
via the finite-difference or finite-element methods (Adler et
al., 1992; Martys and Garboczi, 1992). However, such cal-
culations become computationally expensive when the size
of the simulated sample increases or when different con-
ducting phases exist in the heterogeneous sample with dif-
ferent length scales. Moreover, they are difficult to imple-
ment on synthetic 3D grain packs because of both variable
geometrical surfaces of grain boundaries and complex
boundaries between immiscible fluids.
Alternatively, the electrical conductivity of heteroge-
neous porous media can be calculated by simulating the
Brownian motion of diffusive particles in the porous media
where the transport process is governed by a diffusion equa-
tion together with the appropriate boundary conditions at
the multiphase interface (Schwartz and Banavar, 1989; Kim
and Torquato, 1990; Ioannidis et al., 1997). The diffusion
equation is given by
¶Y
Ñ× [ DÑY ]= , (10)
¶t
FR = = . (13)
so f D¥
For simplicity of calculation, the bulk water conductivity sw
and diffusion coefficient Dw are assigned the value of unity
in our simulations.
Our implementation of random walk simulation is based
on the voxel-based rock sample. There are two kinds of
voxels used in this study: coarse and fine (Figure 5). Each
coarse voxel can be occupied by either the solid phase (A),
oil (B), bulk water (C and D), or clay-bound water with
some oil or bulk water (E). We define the type of voxels E as
those having a common face, edge, or vertex with voxels
occupied by the solid phase (A). The type of voxels D is
defined as those occupied by bulk water and in contact with
voxels E. To explore the properties of the HCM exchange
cation region, voxels close to this region (type of voxels D
and E) are re-discretized into finer voxels. Fine voxels in E
can be occupied by clay-bound water, bulk water, or oil. In
the simulation, we assume that the rock is water wet.
In order to calculate a reliable ensemble average of the
diffusion coefficient, many walker trajectories are gener-

where Y is the local potential and D is the diffusion coeffi-

cient. For late-time, i.e. steady-state diffusion, the character
of the above equation is identical to that describing the
behavior of the static electric potential. An important
parameter included in the simulation of the Brownian
motion of diffusive particles is the time-dependent diffusion
coefficient (or diffusivity) D(t) in the porous media,

r 2 (t )
D (t ) = , (11)
6t

where r 2 ( t ) is the mean-square displacement of walkers at

time t (Tobochnik et al., 1990; Latour et al., 1993; Regier
and Schuchmann, 2005). In the long-time limit, i.e., t ® ¥,
the diffusion coefficient reaches a constant value D¥ for clay
mineral-free rocks (Latour et al., 1995; Nakashima and
Watanabe, 2002). This is expressed by the relationship
D¥ 1
= 2, (12)
Dw t
FIG. 5 Description of voxel types in the coarse and fine grids.
where Dw is the diffusion coefficient of the bulk water, and t There are five types of coarse voxels, each occupied by either
is the tortuosity of the pore space. Through the tortuosity, solid phase (A), oil (B), bulk water (C) and D), or clay-bound
water with either oil or bulk water (E). Each of coarse voxels D
the diffusion coefficient is intimately connected to the for-
and E is rediscretized into finer voxels. Each fine voxel in the
mation factor FR (or rock conductivity so) (Latour et al., coarse voxels E may be occupied by clay-bound water (dark
1995; Toumelin, 2006), as cells), bulk water (medium cells), or oil (light cells). The rock is
assumed to be water wet.

April 2007 PETROPHYSICS 109

 Jin et al.
ated and evaluated. In our model, the starting points of walk-
ers are randomly specified using a Monte Carlo algorithm.
Only those walkers within the pore space occupied by the
electrically conductive components, i.e. bulk water and
clay-bound water, are retained. The walker distribution is
proportional to the ratio of the volume of the clay-bound
water zone to that of the bulk water zone. Each walker is dis-
placed for a sufficiently long time. Length steps of a random
walker are dependent on the type of voxels or fluid in it,
whereas the direction is distributed equally and randomly. In
the coarse voxels C, a large step size is used, which is propor-
tional to the size of coarse voxels, while the step size in
voxels D and E is proportional to the size of fine voxels. A
random step is possible and the new location of the walker is
stored if the new location is not occupied by the non-conduc-
tive phase (solid or oil). However, if the new position is
within solid or oil the step is not carried out, i.e. the walker is
returned to the previous position, and the clock is allowed to
advance by one time step (Schwartz and Banavar, 1989).
A random walker can jump from the bulk water zone to
the clay-bound water zone with a given jump probability
pb,cl, or stay at the original position with probability (1 –
pb,cl). In either case, the simulation time is incremented by
one unit. The reverse condition occurs for the case of walk-
ers jumping from the clay-bound water zone to the bulk
water zone. We enforce a periodic boundary condition in
the simulations, that is, a walker that moves out of the pore
space image at one side reappears at the opposite side.
FIG. 6 Change of effective diffusivity with increased simulation
time. The solid line describes an ensemble average of 1000 ran-
dom walkers. Fluid bulk diffusivity is assumed equal to 1
mm2/ms, and the calculated effective diffusivity (asymptotic
value) is equal to 0.256 mm2/ms (dash line), with the standard
deviation equal to 1.86 x 10–4 mm2/ms.
110 PETROPHYSICS
We applied the random walk algorithm to calculate the
formation factor of a sandstone computed-tomography
(CT) image to validate this approach. There is no clay pres-
ent in the rock core sample from which the CT image was
acquired. The sample has a measured porosity of 20.3% and
formation factor of 17.5. The size of the CT image is
300´300´300 voxels with the side length of each voxel
equal to 4.5 mm. The calculated CT image porosity is
approximately equal to 21.1%. We carried out 10 independ-
ent simulations, each consisting of 1000 walkers, on the
image and calculated the effective diffusivity for each sim-
ulation. Figure 6 shows an example of the variation of the
effective diffusivity with simulation time for one simula-
tion, which describes an ensemble average of 1000 random
walkers. From equation (13), we calculated the formation
factor for each simulation. The mean value of the formation
factor from 10 independent simulations is 18.5 with a stan-
dard deviation of 0.21. Considering the difference in poros-
ity and spatial scales between the CT image and the core
sample, our calculation is in good agreement with the
experimental measurement.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
We performed the random walk simulations on two
models of shaly sands with different porosities, and investi-
gated the effect of the double layer thickness d, diffusivity
contrast Dcl /Dw between clay-bound water and bulk water,
and water saturation Sw on the electrical conductivity of the
modeled shaly sands.
Single-phase simulation
All grains in the Finney packing are uniformly grown
without moving their centers to generate two different poros-
ities of 25.4% and 18.9%. A homogeneous HCM exchange
cation shell of thickness d and diffusivity Dcl is added to each
electrically insulating grain. The pore space is saturated with
the electrolyte, which is assigned a diffusivity equal to Dw.
Note that different values of electrical conductivity exist
close to the clay mineral surfaces, i.e. in the double-layer
zone, compared to the electrical conductivity of the bulk pore
fluid, which could be an order of magnitude larger than the
bulk pore water conductivity even for moderately saline
waters (Almon, 1979). We assign a specific conductivity to
the water in the double-layer zone, and a different value to
the bulk pore water, in which the electrical conductivity is
assumed to be proportional to the diffusivity of the corre-
sponding water (Schwartz and Banavar, 1989).
Input parameters in the simulation are the bulk water
diffusivity Dw, the clay-bound water diffusivity Dcl, the
ratio of the coarse voxel size to the random step size rc for
April 2007
 Pore-Scale Analysis of the Waxman-Smits Shaly-Sand Conductivity Model

TABLE 1 Parameters used in the random walk simulations. TABLE 2 The corresponding values of clay-bound water
saturation Sw,cl, and bulk water saturation Sw,b for each con-
Notation Values figuration of d in the two modeled shaly sands with different
values of porosity f and shaly-sand formation factor, FR*.
Dw (mm2/ms) 1
Dcl (mm2/ms) 1, 5 10, 25, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000 f(%) FR* Notation Values
rc 2 (coarse voxel size 6 mm)
rf 2 (finer voxel size 0.6 mm) d (mm) 1.8 3.0 3.6 4.8
N 1000 18.9 16.6 Sw,cl (%) 18.1 29.0 33.7 42.0
tT (ms) 1.0´107 Sw,b(%) 81.9 71.0 66.3 58.0
d (mm) 1.8, 3.0, 3.6, 4.8
pb,cl (%) 50 d (mm) 1.8 3.0 3.6 4.8
25.4 9.0 Sw,cl (%) 15.6 25.3 29.5 37.3
Sw,b (%) 84.4 74.7 70.5 63.7

the type of voxels C, the ratio of the finer voxel size to the
random step size rf for the type of voxels D and E, the num-
tion (5) is used to compare our simulation results to the W-S
ber of walkers N, the travel time of each walker tT, the thick-
model. The simulated values of dimensionless excess con-
ness of clay-bound water d, and the probability pb,cl (Table
ductivity X vary with the diffusivity contrast Dcl /Dw and the
1). The calculated values of the shaly-sand formation factor
thickness d for the modeled shaly sands with porosity of
FR* and saturation of clay-bound water Sw,cl and bulk water
18.9% and 25.4%, respectively (Figures 7 and 8). The HCM
Sw,b are shown for each configuration of d (Table 2). The
exchange cation layer cannot be strictly treated as a contin-
value of FR* is calculated by assigning Dcl = Dw during the
uum of finite conductivity. The conductivity of HCM
simulation. It is discussed later that values of the diffusivity
exchange cations decreases from a “surface value” to the
contrast Dcl /Dw are close to 1 when the pore bulk water is
bulk value for both shaly-sand samples and is a function of
highly conductive. The value of FR* from the W-S equation
the normal distance from the grain surface (Schwartz et al.,
corresponds to the slope of the linear portion of the so ver-
1989). As d increases, the clay-bound water saturation in
sus sw plot that occurs at high values of sw.
the rock increases (Table 2), and its relative contribution to
If the bulk water conductivity sw and diffusivity Dw are
the overall rock conductivity increases, resulting in a higher
assigned the value of unity in equation (13), then the rock
excess conductivity X. With the porosity increasing, the rel-
conductivity can be calculated directly as so = fD¥. Equa-

FIG. 7 Simulated values of dimensionless excess conductivity FIG. 8 Simulated values of dimensionless excess conductivity
X as a function of diffusivity contrast Dcl /Dw and thickness d for X as a function of diffusivity contrast Dcl /Dw and thickness d for
the shaly sand with porosity equal to 18.9%. the shaly sand with porosity equal to 25.4%.

April 2007 PETROPHYSICS 111

 Jin et al.
ative fraction of the HCM exchange cation region in the
rock decreases, and hence one obtains lower values of X.
In the simulations we use an unbiased jump probability
(pb,cl = 50%) for walkers stepping across the phase bound-
aries, since HCM exchange cations on the mineral surface
are in rapid exchange with those in the bulk water. Other
biased probabilities could also be implemented in our
FIG. 9 Plot of so versus sw for the shaly sand with porosity equal
to 18.9% at low values of salt concentration. Values of Qv = 0.20
meq/ml and d = 3.6 mm were used to construct the plot. The
dashed line (parallel to that of clean sand) is used to emphasize
the nonlinearity of the relationship between so and sw.
FIG. 10 Differences between the simulation results so, values
so,linear calculated from the linear relation connecting the two
end-points of the simulation curve of shaly sand in Figure 9, and
Waxman-Smits calculations so,W-S from equation (2).
112 PETROPHYSICS
model based on the relative conductivity of the two phases,
i.e., Dcl /Dw (Kim and Torquato, 1990) or the harmonic
mean of Dcl and Dw (McCarthy, 1990). However, a rigorous
justification for these two approaches is yet to be provided.
At low water conductivity the simulated rock conductiv-
ity so is described as a function of the pore water conductiv-
ity sw for the shaly sand with porosity equal to 18.9% (Fig-
ure 9). Values of Qv = 0.20 meq/ml and d = 3.6 mm are used
in this plot. The values of so are derived by rescaling the
simulation results with the corresponding values of sw that
are obtained by choosing the appropriate value of Dcl /Dw in
Figure 7 and by resolving the dimensional excess conduc-
tivity from Figure 1. Note that the simulation curve of
shaly-sand conductivity is not linear at low values of sw. For
clarity, we calculated the differences between the simula-
tion results so, and the values obtained from the linear curve
connecting the two end-points of the simulation curve of
shaly sand, so,linear, and W-S calculation, so,W-S, from equa-
tion (2) (Figure 10). As expected, so is an increasing func-
tion of sw, and exhibits convex-up behavior at low values of
sw (Waxman and Smits, 1968; Waxman-Thomas, 1974).
The simulation rock conductivity so is consistent with the
calculations from Waxman-Smits model. It is also interest-
ing to note that the chosen diffusivity contrasts are propor-
tional to 1 / sw at high values of salinity but proportional
to 1 / sw at low values of salinity (Figure 11).
Reasonable parametric values can be surmised from a
better understanding of the relationship between diffusivity
contrasts and pore fluid conductivity sw. Diffusivity con-
trasts are strongly affected by different values of d (3.6 mm
FIG. 11 Chosen values of Dcl /Dw as a function of sw used to
calculate the results shown in Figure 9. Values are selected to
yield an excess conductivity consistent with W-S model predic-
tions.
April 2007
 Pore-Scale Analysis of the Waxman-Smits Shaly-Sand Conductivity Model
and 4.8 mm) in a synthetic shaly sand with Qv = 0.20 meq/ml
and f = 18.9% (Figure 12). It is clear that the desired value
of Dcl /Dw at different values of salinity is influenced by the
choice of d. In the case of sw < 0.005 mho/cm, the value of d
exerts a strong influence on the diffusivity contrast that
needs to be chosen. The ratio Dcl /Dw can be maintained rel-
atively constant if d is allowed to increase with decreasing
values of salinity. This is in keeping with increments in dou-
ble-layer thickness that have been found to occur below a
critical value of salinity (Clavier et al., 1984; Sen, 1987;
Bassiouni, 1994; Hill et al., 1979). Silva and Bassiouni
(1988) calculated the fractional volume occupied by the
double layer as a function of far-water conductivity. A
decrease of far-water conductivity below a value of 0.03
mho/cm is accompanied by a drastic increase in volume
occupied by the double layer. This further justifies the
selection of higher values of d at low values of salinity
while maintaining invariant diffusivity contrasts. In the
case of very shaly sands (Qv > 1 meq/ml) and under low
equilibrating brine conductivity (sw < 0.03 mho/cm) the
desired excess conductivity is realizable only when d is
comparable to the bulk/pore dimensions. The ratio Dcl /Dw
can then be as low as 1, which eventually reduces to
Waxman and Smits’ assumptions of a uniformly enhanced
pore electrolyte (Waxman and Smits, 1968).
The variation of the apparent formation-porosity expo-
nent ma, defined as
1 sw
Fa = = , (14)
f ma
so
FIG. 12 Diffusivity contrasts chosen to generate W-S model
results for the shaly sand with f = 18.9% and Qv = 0.20 meq/ml.
April 2007 PETROPHYSICS
is also of interest. Excess conductivity generated by the
HCM counterions results in decreased values of ma at low
values of salinity. As salinity increases, ma reaches a con-
stant value as the relative contribution of HCM conductivity
decreases. Figure 13 describes the variation of ma with pore
fluid conductivity calculated for the shaly sand with f =
18.9% and d = 3.6 mm. The variation of ma closely resem-
bles the trends in bilogarithmic plots of Fa /FR versus sw
reported by Worthington (1985).
In addition to the rapid exchange with ions in the bulk
water, the HCM exchange cations on the clay mineral sur-
face can move along the surface when the shaly sand is sub-
jected to an external electrical field (Revil and Glover,
1998). This movement results in finite rock conductivity
even if the shaly sand is saturated with fresh water (Dalla et
al., 2004; Lima et al., 2005). Our simulations confirm the
existence of this finite conductivity. Figure 14 shows the
variation of the simulated rock conductivity so with the
thickness of clay-bound water d when the shaly sand is sat-
urated with fresh water (sw = 0 or negligible). One can
observe that so increases linearly as d increases, and that the
conductivity becomes null when d = 0. This behavior is
consistent with the property that the conductivity of dry
shaly sand is negligible (Bassiouni, 1994). The simulated
rock conductivity can be rescaled back to the “true” value if
we knew the conductivity of clay-bound water and its
diffusivity. In the simulation, we assume values of the con-
ductivity and diffusivity of clay-bound water equal to 1
mho/cm and 1 mm2/ms, respectively.
FIG. 13 Values of ma calculated from simulation results as a
function of sw and Qv for the shaly sand with f = 18.9% and
d = 3.6 mm.
113
 Jin et al.

Two-phase simulation
We investigated the effect of water saturation on the
electrical conductivity of the modeled shaly sands at low
and high values of water conductivity, sw. For the simula-
tions, we maintain values of the clay shell thickness con-
stant at d = 3 mm, while the volume concentration of HCM
exchange cations is set to Qv = 0.20 meq/ml for both sam-
ples. At low sw, we choose the diffusivity contrast Dcl /Dw =
5. From Figure 1, Figure 7 and Figure 8, we determine that
sw = 0.031 mho/cm for the shaly sand with porosity of
18.9% and 0.025 mho/cm for the sample with porosity of
25.4%. At high sw, we set Dcl /Dw = 1.
We assume that these two samples are water-wet sand
and that a film of water is always maintained on the grain
surfaces. Under such a condition, the wetting phase (water)
occupies the corners of large pores and small pores, while
the non-wetting phase (oil) occupies the central parts of the
invaded pores. To assign the spatial fluid distributions in
the pore space, we use the technique of maximal-inscribed
spheres to obtain several distributions of water and oil for
each sample corresponding to a different value of capillary
pressure (Silin et al., 2003, 2004). The ordinary percolation
algorithm is used for that purpose. Figures 15(a) and (b) dis-
play an example of part of the pore space occupied by water
and oil in the sample with porosity of 18.9%, where water
saturation is Sw = 0.668 including clay-bound water and bulk
water. In the following simulations, we only consider the
cases in which water is connected through the pore space.
The resistivity index IR is used to quantify the effect of
partial saturation on the rock conductivity and is defined as

FIG. 15 Pore space occupied by the wetting phase, water (a),

FIG. 14 Plot of so versus d for the shaly sand with f = 18.9%
under fresh water conditions (i.e., conductivity of bulk water
sw = 0). The fitting dashed line is so,fit = 5.6 x 10–3d.
and non-wetting fluid, oil (b), respectively, in the modeled shaly
sand with porosity equal to 18.9%. Water saturation, including
clay-bound water and bulk water, is Sw = 0.668. The dimension
of each image is 250 x 250 x 250 voxels, and the voxel resolu-
tion is 6 mm.

114 PETROPHYSICS April 2007

 Pore-Scale Analysis of the Waxman-Smits Shaly-Sand Conductivity Model

low. We can represent this curved relationship as two linear

TABLE 3 Computed values of coefficients b* and saturation segments, with slopes n*L and n*H, respectively, and a
exponents n* in equation (16) for two modeled shaly sand cross-over saturation Sw,cr. However, there is no imperative
samples at low and high values of sw. to impose linearity if some other relationship is suggested
by the data. Similar anomalous relationships between I R*
Low sw High sw and Sw were reported by Diederix (1982) as due to surface
f (%) b*L n*L b*H n*H b* n* roughness based on laboratory measurements of Rotliegend
sandstone, which has a rough clay coating with Qv = 0.20
18.9 1.09 0.73 1.01 1.07 0.93 1.72 meq/ml on the grain surface. Other studies confirm the exis-
25.4 1.05 1.07 1.01 1.33 0.95 1.93 tence of this relationship (Taylor and Barker, 2002; Dalla et
al., 2004).
The values of coefficients b* and saturation exponents
n* from equation (16) are calculated for the two modeled
so
IR = » bS w-n , (15) shaly-sand samples (Table 3). At low values of water satu-
st ra tion, the con duc tiv ity enhance ment aris ing from
densely-packed HCM exchange cations offsets the resistiv-
where so is the conductivity of the rock fully saturated with
ity associated with lower values of Sw, thereby resulting in a
water and st is the conductivity of the rock partially satu-
lower value of n* = n*L. At high values of water saturation,
rated with water (Archie, 1942). The value of the coefficient
however, the relative contribution from HCM exchange
b is approximately equal to 1, and the saturation exponent n
cations to the rock conductivity becomes smaller and a
is typically about 2 for clean sands. However, the value of n
higher value of n* = n*H is obtained. Compared to Archie’s
varies with the volume of clay minerals present in the rock
formula I R* = S w-2 , the coefficient b* is very close to 1
and represents an apparent saturation exponent when calcu-
(±0.09), values of saturation exponent n*L and n*H are much
lated using equation (15) for shaly sands. When the forma-
smaller than the normally assumed value of n* = 2. This
tion is partially saturated, the HCM exchange cations are
result is in marked agreement with Diederix’s experimental
densely packed within the clay mineral zone and the relative
observations on Rotliegend sandstone (Diederix, 1982).
contribution to overall rock conductivity from the HCM
We also note that the values of n*L and n*H depend on the
layer is expected to increase. Based on experimental evi-
sample porosity. In our simulations at low sw, we assumed
dence, Waxman and Smits (1968) predicted this excess con-
that both samples had the same characteristics in the HCM
tribution to be inversely proportional to the value of water
saturation. They formulated an empirical relationship by
including the effect of the HCM exchange cations through
the function BQv /Sw as
é sw + BQv / Sw ù * -n*
I R* = I Rê ú» b S w , (16)
ë sw + BQv û

where I R* and n* are the “clay-corrected” resistivity index

and saturation exponent, respectively and the value of b* is
close to 1.0 (Diederix, 1982).
For each case of water saturation modeled we computed
the bulk conductivity of the corresponding part of pore
space occupied by water. Next, we calculated the clay-cor-
rected saturation exponent n* from equation (16) for each
shaly-sand sample. In the random walk simulations, we
assume that the electrical conductivity of oil is zero. Fig-
ure 16 shows the variation of the computed resistivity
index I R* with water saturation Sw for two samples at low sw.
These two samples do not exhibit the straight-line relation- FIG. 16 Computed resistivity index versus water saturation Sw
for two shaly sand samples for the case of low sw. Archie’s equa-
ship between I R* and Sw predicted by Archie’s law on a
tion used in the calculations is given by IR* = Sw-2. The fitting
bilogarithmic plot. Instead, the relationship is curved such curves have the form IR* = b *Sw-n *, where the values of b* and n*
that at low values of Sw the resistivity index I R* is relatively are listed in Table 3.

April 2007 PETROPHYSICS 115

 Jin et al.
exchange cation zone: d = 3 mm, Qv = 0.20 meq/ml, and
Dcl/Dw = 5. This implies that the relative contribution on rock
conductivity from HCM exchange cations is smaller in the
sample with high porosity than in the sample with low poros-
ity. The sample with high porosity will exhibit relatively
larger values of n*L and n*H, as observed in our simulations.
The calculated values of cross-over critical water satura-
tion Sw,cr are 0.80 for both samples. This cross-over could be
larger and reach the value of 1.0 if the rock porosity were
low enough or else if d were large enough. Such behavior
indicates that only the HCM exchange cations contribute to
rock conductivity or that their contribution is relatively
large compared to that due to pore bulk water. In the latter
case, the two piecewise linear segments would become a
single line with a slope equal to n*.
In contrast to the curved relationship between log(I R* ) and
log(Sw) at low values of sw, our simulations exhibit the nor-
mal linearity at high sw (Figure 17). One can observe that the
effect of water saturation on the exponent n* is negligible.
Although an increase in sw decreases the relative contribu-
tion from the HCM counterions to the rock conductivity,
regardless of the model interpretation, this contribution still
makes the value of n* smaller than 2. The value of n* is
larger for the sample with high porosity of 25.4% (n*=1.93)
than for the sample with low porosity of 18.9% (n*=1.72).
Again, this result is due to the assumption of equal properties
in the HCM exchange cation zone for both samples.
Even though the anomalous resistivity index/water satu-
ration relationships of very low n*-values obtained in our
FIG. 17 Computed resistivity index versus water saturation Sw
for two shaly-sand samples for the case of high sw. Archie’s
equation used in the calculations is given by IR* = Sw-2. The fitting
curves have the form IR* = b *Sw-n *, where the values of b* and n*
are listed in Table 3.
116 PETROPHYSICS
simulations were also observed in experimental measure-
ments (Diederix, 1982; Taylor and Barker, 2002), we make
the following remarks stemming from our simulation results:
1. The curved relationship of log(I R* ) versus log(Sw) in Fig-
ure 16 was obtained at low sw, where the conductivity
enhancement arising from the HCM exchange cations
becomes more prominent. We could not anticipate this
behav ior from Diederix’s exper i men tal results
(Diederix, 1982).
2. The dependence of the saturation exponent n* on poros-
ity could be more likely related to the relative contribu-
tion of HCM exchange cations on rock conductivity. For
the rock with low porosity, the relative volume fraction
of the HCM exchange cation zone to the bulk (or free)
water zone is large, which results in a substantially
higher electrical conductivity and a lower value of n*.
3. Water saturation may affect the electrical behavior of
shaly sands at low sw much more than at high sw. The
dependence of I R* on water conductivity or salinity was
also observed in experimental measurements by Taylor
and Barker (2002). However, such a statement cannot be
generalized without further investigation and verifica-
tion by experiments.
CONCLUSIONS
We developed a pore-scale random-walk model based on
the 3D digital representation of a porous medium and used
it to simulate pore-level phenomena that govern electrical
conduction in shaly sands. With this model, we reproduced
realistic values of excess conductivity associated with the
HCM exchange cations at various electrolyte conductivi-
ties. Our model can be extended to various clay mineral
morphologies since we have made no assumptions regard-
ing continuous electrical pathways for the HCM cations.
Several previous works on this subject did not consider the
effective volumetric contribution to excess conductivity
resulting from surface conductivities associated with the
HCM cations.
We have shown that the relationship between interfacial
clay mineral conductivity and effective excess conductivity
of the HCM exchange cations needs to be calibrated using
the thickness of the volume continuum, d. The requirement
of increased values of d with a decrease in electrolyte salinity
is consistent with observed swelling of the anion-free layer at
low values of salinity. By maintaining constant diffusivity
contrasts while allowing only d to increase, we have simu-
lated the entire range of measured excess conductivities
associated with moderately shaly sands. The fact that the
thickness of the clay mineral zone d needs to be comparable
in size to the pore dimensions at low values of salinity con-
firms the W-S assumptions of a uniform pore electrolyte.
April 2007
 Pore-Scale Analysis of the Waxman-Smits Shaly-Sand Conductivity Model

Clay in the rock matrix plays an essential role in electri- n*H High value of n*
cal conduction, but only in the presence of an electrolyte. N Number of walkers
The conductivity of dry shaly sand is negligible. Our results pb,cl Jump probability from the bulk water zone to
confirmed the existence of a finite electrical conductivity of the clay-bound water zone
shaly sand saturated with fresh water. It was found that Qv Volume concentration of HCM exchange
there is no electrical conduction when the thickness of the cations, meq/ml
clay mineral zone d is zero. r Displacement of a walker at time t, mm
Simulations considered in this paper reproduced the rc Ratio of the coarse voxel size to the random
anomalous curved resistivity index/water saturation rela- step size
tionships of very low clay-corrected saturation exponent rf Ratio of the fine voxel size to the random step
n*, which are consistent with reported experimental obser- size
vations (Diederix, 1982; Taylor and Barker, 2002). The Sw Water saturation
simulated values of n* are lower than the typical value of 2. Sw,b Saturation of bulk water
It was found that the relative amount of the HCM exchange Sw,cl Saturation of clay-bound water
cation zone to the total conductive volume could dramati- Sw,cr Cross-over critical water saturation
cally affect the electrical behavior of shaly sands. t Time, ms
Our pore-scale model allows one to include arbitrary tT Travel time of each walker, ms
media boundaries and takes into account the effect of clay X Dimensionless excess conductivity
minerals on the electrical properties of the rock. The ability
of our approach to correctly predict the so versus sw curves Greek symbols
and the subsequent sensitivity to model parameters lends cre- scl Conductivity of HCM exchange cations or
dence to the physical consistency of the method. Future work clay-bound water, mho/cm
will involve studying the effects of wettability, saturation so Conductivity of the water-saturated rock,
cycles, and varying rock geometry on the model parameters. mho/cm
so,linear Conductivity interpolated from a linear
relationship, mho/cm
NOMENCLATURE so,W-S Conductivity calculated from Waxman-Smits’
a Coefficient in Archie’s equation model, mho/cm
b Coefficient in Archie’s equation st Conductivity of the rock partially saturated with
b* Modified coefficient in Archie’s equation water, mho/cm
bL* Low value of b* coefficient in Archie’s equation sw Conductivity of the saturating water, mho/cm
bH* High value of b* coefficient in Archie’s f Effective rock porosity
equation d Thickness of the shell of HCM exchange
B Mobility of HCM counterions, mho cm2/meq cations, mm
D Diffusivity, mm2/ms F Local electrical potential
Dw Diffusivity of bulk water, mm2/ms Y Local diffusion potential
Dcl Diffusivity of clay-bound water, mm2/ms t Tortuosity
D¥ Asymptotic value of time-dependent diffusivity,
mm2/ms ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Fa Apparent formation resistivity factor
FR Rock formation resistivity factor The work reported in this paper was funded by the Uni-
FR* Shaly-sand formation resistivity factor versity of Texas at Austin’s Research Consortium on For-
HCM Hydrated-clay minerals mation Evaluation, jointly sponsored by Aramco, Baker
IR Resistivity index Atlas, BP, British Gas, ConocoPhillips, Chevron, ENI E&P,
I R* “Clay-corrected” resistivity index ExxonMobil, Halliburton Energy Services, Hydro, Mara-
j Electrical current density thon Oil Corporation, Mexican Institute for Petroleum,
m Cementation exponent in Archie’s equation O c c i d e n ta l P e t ro l e u m C o r p o ra t i o n , P e t ro b r a s ,
ma Apparent cementation exponent Schlumberger, Shell International E&P, Statoil, TOTAL,
n Unit normal vector and Weatherford.
n Saturation exponent in Archie’s equation We are also thankful to Professor Tad W. Patzek of the
n* “Clay-corrected” saturation exponent University of California at Berkeley and Dr. Dmitry B. Silin
n*L Low value of n* of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for their help in

April 2007 PETROPHYSICS 117

 Jin et al.
partitioning the images occupied by wetting and non-wet-
ting fluids. A note of gratitude goes to Dr. James J. Howard
and three anonymous reviewers of Petrophysics whose con-
structive editorial and technical suggestions improved the
original conference paper.
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 Jin et al.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Guodong Jin received a PhD in Reservoir Engineering and
Petrophysics from the University of California at Berkeley in
2006, and is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of
Petroleum Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin. Dur-
ing 1997-2000 he held the position of Research Associate with
Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. His
research interests include pore-scale modeling of petrophysical
response in reservoir rocks and shaly sands, rock fracture and dam-
age mechanism, fluid flow in porous media.
Carlos Torres-Verdín received a PhD degree in Engineering
Geoscience from the University of California, Berkeley, in 1991.
During 1991–1997 he held the position of Research Scientist with
Schlumberger-Doll Research. From 1997–1999, he was Reservoir
Specialist and Technology Champion with YPF (Buenos Aires,
Argentina). Since 1999, he has been with the Department of Petro-
leum and Geosystems Engineering of The University of Texas at
Austin, where he currently holds the position of Associate Profes-
sor. He conducts research on borehole geophysics, formation eval-
uation, and integrated reservoir characterization. Torres-Verdín
has served as Guest Editor for Radio Science, and is currently a
member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Electromagnetic
Waves and Applications, and an associate editor for Petrophysics
(SPWLA) and the SPE Journal. He is co-recipient of the 2003 and
2004 Best Paper Award by Petrophysics, and is recipient of
SPWLA’s 2006 Distinguished Technical Achievement Award.
Sarath Devarajan received his BS in Chemical Engineering
from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras and is currently a
Master’s student in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at
the University of Texas at Austin. His research interests include
reservoir characterization, electrical conduction in shaly sands and
simulation of fluid flow through disordered porous media.
120 PETROPHYSICS
Emmanuel Toumelin received a PhD degree in Petroleum
Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin and an engineer-
ing degree from the Ecole Centrale, Lille. From 2001 to 2005, his
research at UT focused on developing pore-scale models of elec-
tromagnetic and nuclear magnetic resonance measurements in sat-
urated rocks. He also held research internship positions with Baker
Atlas, Schlumberger-Doll Research and ChevronTexaco between
2001 and 2003. Emmanuel joined Chevron North America E&P in
2006 as a petrophysicist for Midcontinent. He serves as a technical
editor for SPE Reservoir Evaluation and Engineering and SPE
Journal.
E. C. Thomas received a PhD in Physical Chemistry from
Stanford University in 1966, completed a post-doctoral year at
Princeton University, then joined Shell Development Co. and per-
formed research in the electrical behavior of shaly sands and many
other areas of Petrophysical Engineering. E. C. spent 32 years in
the Shell organization in positions encompassing field work, oper-
ating division engineer, research supervisor, technical training and
technical oversight of Petrophysics. Upon retiring, E.C. formed
Bayou Petrophysics to continue his work in Petrophysics. E.C. has
served on numerous SPE and SPWLA technical committees and
chaired several SPE technical forums. He also served as an SPE
Distinguished Lec turer and presently serves as a technical
reviewer for SPE and an associate editor for SPWLA. In 2004 he
was awarded the SPWLA Gold Medal for technical achievement.
April 2007