Temperature dependence of spectral induced polarization data: Experimental results and membrane polarization theory

Abstract

Spectral induced polarization measurements are affected by temperature variations due to a variety of temperature-dependent parameters that control the complex electrical conductivity. Most important is the influence of the ion mobility, which increases with increasing temperature. It is responsible for the increase of the conductivity of the fluid in the pores with temperature and influences the electrical double layer on the mineral surface. This work is based on laboratory measurements of 13 sandstone samples from different sources with different geological and petrophysical characteristics. We measured the complex impedance in a frequency range from 0.01 to 100 Hz and a temperature range from 0 to 40 °C. The main observation is a decrease of the characteristic time (defined by the inverse of the frequency, at which the phase shift is maximum) with increasing temperature. The strength of this decrease differs from one sample to another. The temperature dependence of the phase shift magnitude cannot easily be generalized, as it depends on the particular sample. The experimental findings suggest that neglecting the influence of temperature on complex conductivity may lead to significant errors when estimating hydraulic conductivity from relaxation time. We also simulate the temperature dependence with a theoretical model of membrane polarization and review some of the model properties, with an emphasis on the temperature dependence of the parameters. The model reproduces several features characterizing the measured data, including the temperature dependence of the characteristic times. Computed tomography and microscope images of the pore structure of three samples also allow us to associate differences in the geometrical parameters used in the modelling with pore scale parameters of the actual samples.