Thermal conductivity of sedimentary and basement rocks from the Eromanga and Cooper Basins, South Australia

Abstract

Thermal conductivity measurements have been made on core samples from the Eromanga/Cooper Basin sequence in northern South Australia. A divided bar apparatus was used and the measurements were made with the samples dry and saturated with water. The results are compared with predictions made from theoretical models of thermal conductivity in porous rocks although they do not unequivocally support any particular model. The samples are divided into sandstones, siltstones and shales with effective matrix thermal conductivities of 6.0, 3.5 and 2.5 Wm?1K?1 respectively and it is suggested that a suitable predictive model is the average of the Maxwell and geometric mean models. These two are effectively the upper and lower bounds for the models considered.