Digital Core Reconstruction Method
Digital core reconstruction technology includes a method of physical experimentation and a method of numerical reconstruction (Zhu et al., 2018). Physical experimentation generally involves scanning the core with a high-resolution electron microscope, obtaining information through image processing technology, and directly reconstructing a 3D digital core (Yang et al., 2016). Three physical experimentation methods exist, each utilizing different instruments: sequence imaging, CT scanning, and FIB-SEM. The advantage of the physical experimentation method is that it can use a high-resolution SEM to establish a sufficiently accurate digital core; its disadvantage is that the instrument used is expensive, and the experimental process is tedious and time-consuming (Hazlett, 1997). The numerical reconstruction methods are divided into random, process, and random-process methods. Conventional methods include the complete random, random growth, Gaussian simulation, simulated annealing, multipoint statistics, Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC), and process simulation methods (Bostanabad et al., 2018; Quiblier, 1984). The mixed element method combines two numerical reconstruction methods, such as the Gaussian-simulated annealing method and the process-simulated annealing method (Okabe & Blunt, 2004).