A framework for inferring field-scale rock physics relationships through numerical simulation

Rock physics attempts to relate the geophysical response of a rock to geologic properties of interest, such as porosity, lithology, and fluid content. The geophysical properties estimated by field-scale surveys, however, are impacted by additional factors, such as complex averaging of heterogeneity at the scale of the survey and artifacts introduced through data inversion, that are not addressed by traditional approaches to rock physics. We account for these field-scale factors by creating numerical analogs to geophysical surveys via Monte Carlo simulation. The analogs are used to develop field-scale rock physics relationships that are appropriate for transforming the geophysical properties estimated from a survey into geologic properties. We demonstrate the technique using a synthetic example where radar tomography is used to estimate water content.