Automatic extraction of outcrop cavity based on a multiscale regional convolution neural network

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cageo.2022.105038Get rights and content

Highlights

  • A multi-scale regional convolution neural network method for detecting outcrop cavities is proposed.

  • The method has higher accuracy than the traditional image detection method.

  • The quantitative characterization and statistical process of void parameters are highly automated.

  • Automatic extraction of field outcrops provides a basis for carbonate reservoir evaluation on the profile.

Abstract

Determination of pore space characteristics is important for carbonate reservoir interpretation and evaluation. Field outcrops can reflect the geology of the subsurface reservoir. The most common method of traditional outcrop research is field investigation, which is likely to cause human errors. Digital image recognition of geological outcrop areas can reduce the problem of inaccurate descriptions of geological structures caused by human factors. Automatic extraction based on convolutional neural networks can greatly reduce the amount of such work. By enhancing the deep-learning model of a convolution neural network, the mask region-convolutional neural network (Mask R-CNN) is proposed. This method adapts to the multiscale features of the cavity by manipulating the scales of the input image. To verify the applicability of the model, the method is applied to automatic cavity identification in the digital outcrop profile of the Dengying Formation (2nd Member) in Xianfeng, Ebian. The parameters are calculated layer by layer, and their distribution characteristics are quantitatively analysed, indicating good application results. To verify the advanced nature of the model, the cavity extraction results of this method are compared with those of traditional image segmentation, machine learning and other depth learning methods. Precision analysis shows that the performance of the method proposed in this paper is superior to the traditional methods. In addition, the cavity feature parameters extracted by this method are compared with the manual extraction. The accuracy for the cavity number, surface porosity, and average cavity area is over 80%, 88%, and 72%, respectively for the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method is reliable and accurate, hence it will help to provide a basis for reservoir prediction in the process of regional geological exploration.

Introduction

One of the important parameters in carbonate reservoir characterization and evaluation is determination of pore space characteristics (Yang et al., 2016; Schön, 2015). In reservoir evaluation, it is of great significance to quantitatively identify the distribution of fractures, pores in carbonate rocks and their internal geometric structure (Sun et al., 2012). Traditionally, the pore space characteristics of reservoirs are obtained through drilling and seismic data (Ping et al., 2013; Thiemeyer et al., 2014; Al Hinai et al., 2014). The conventional method of pore space extraction is thin-section observation (Verwer et al., 2011; Borazjani et al., 2016; Lai et al., 2018) or core CT scan (Tiwari et al., 2013, Xiaobo et al., 2020). This method has some limitations and technical bottlenecks in microscopic pore characterization. It can only be interpreted based on fine characterization of samples and inversion of spectral or laser intensity data, with relatively poor reliability. Recent techniques, such as the use of the current powerful processing mineralogy tool scanning electron microscopy (QEMSCAN), play an important role in pore space and mineral segmentation (Armitage et al., 2010; Amao et al., 2016). Compared with drilling and seismic data, outcrop data have more intuitiveness, integrity, accuracy and testability. Outcrop research is traditionally based on field investigations and manual drawings, which consume considerable manpower and time, and accuracy is not guaranteed. On the other hand, the latest digital outcrop technology based on laser scanning can realize fine, quantitative and simulated outcrop research. Therefore, automatic image pore recognition based on laser scanning digital outcrops can improve efficiency and facilitate information extraction and parameter characterization of quantitative pores. After the cave structure is identified, the geological characteristics of outcrops (i.e., structure, sedimentation and diagenesis) are combined to clarify the genetic types and development rules of pores and caves to provide a basis for reservoir prediction in the process of regional geological exploration. Therefore, how to use digital image recognition technology to complete the automatic recognition of cavities in outcrop areas is a subject of practical significance.

Based on the image segmentation technology proposed by Haralick and Shapiro in 1985 (Haralick and Shapiro, 1985), this technology has been applied in geoscience fields (Meyer and Beucher, 1990). Since then, image processing technology has begun to be applied to the automatic identification of fractures and cavities in logging imaging data (Li et al., 2005). Many scholars have widely used methods such as threshold segmentation (Ke and Xu, 2006; Cao, 2015; Xie, 2015; Tuan et al., 2020), edge extraction (Tian et al., 1999; Li, 2010) and machine learning (Shen and Gao, 2007; Qu et al., 2009; Shi, 2008; Chen et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2017; Gomes et al., 2016; Viana et al., 2016) to realize automatic identification of fractures and caves in logging imaging data. However, outcrops will be greatly affected by natural conditions such as illumination differences, rock fragmentation and weathering. Traditional automatic image recognition methods are inefficient, so artificial intelligence methods are mainly preferred in the identification of outcrop fractures and cavities (Su et al., 2005). In recent years, deep learning algorithms have emerged and achieved great success in the fields of computer vision (Simonyan and Zisserman, 2014), speech recognition (Hannun et al., 2014), semantic recognition (Parikh et al., 2016) and reinforcement learning (Mnih et al., 2015), which have promoted the rapid development of artificial intelligence. Deep learning also provides an effective tool for building a new, data-driven earth system science model (Reichstein et al., 2019), and has been successfully applied in image-based earth science-related problems (Koeshidayatullah et al., 2020; Dias et al., 2020; Saporetti et al., 2018). Among them, target recognition based on convolutional neural networks (CNN) has made a breakthrough in natural image applications. At present, target detection based on CNN includes two broad categories of methods (Kwok et al., 2018; Oliveira et al., 2019). The first category is based on regional recommendations. Its core idea is to determine the possible locations of the target in the image to be detected in advance through candidate regions. This approach mainly includes spatial pyramid pooling networks (SPP-NET) (He et al., 2015), fast region-based convolutional neural networks (Fast R-CNN) (Girshick, 2015), faster region-based convolutional neural networks (Faster R-CNN) (Ren et al., 2015), region-based fully convolutional networks (R-FCN) (Dai et al., 2016), mask region-based convolutional neural networks (Mask R-CNN) (He et al., 2017) and other algorithms. The second category is based on regression, such that a regression operation is carried out for the positioning and categorization of the target in a convolutional neural network. It mainly includes algorithms such as you only look once (YOLO) (Redmon et al., 2016) and single shot multibox detector (SSD) (Liu et al., 2016). On the whole, the first type of methods is more accurate, but the second type of methods is faster. We proposed an improved method named Mask R-CNN, which is a new method of cavity detection based on a multiscale regional convolutional neural network, and compared it with several existing common cavity recognition methods through experiments. Then, according to the cavity extraction results of this method, three cavity feature parameters, including the number of cavities, the surface porosity and the average cavity area, are calculated. The accuracy of cavity feature parameter extraction is evaluated by referring to the manual extraction results. Finally, by taking the digital outcrop profile of the Dengying Formation (2ndMember) in Xianfeng, Ebian, as an example, the method proposed in this paper is used to automatically identify the cavities in the outcrop profile, calculate the cavity parameters in layers, and quantitatively analyse their distribution characteristics.

Section snippets

Image segmentation algorithm

Traditional image segmentation methods, such as Otsu segmentation based on threshold detection (Otsu, 1979), watershed segmentation based on mathematical morphology and topology theory (Vincent and Soille, 1991), back propagation neural network trained by error back propagation algorithm (Rumelhart et al., 1986) and support vector machine method based on region segmentation (Cortes and Vapnik, 1995), use low-level semantics such as pixel colour, texture and shape to segment images with complex

Data preparation

The data are collected with high-definition photos of the Dengying Formation (2nd Member) in Xianfeng, Ebian, which are taken by a Pentax 645D high-resolution digital camera. The resolution of the image is 2 mm and the size is 800 × 800 mm. Then, we used the open-source image annotation tool VGG Image Annotator (Dutta and Zisserman, 2019) to create a sample dataset. We collect a total of 189 cavities as training samples. In addition, two regions with the same size of 800 × 800 mm are selected

Application of outcrop cavities in Dengying Formation (2nd member) in Xianfeng of Ebian

In this section, the multiscale regional convolutional neural network method is applied to the quantitative characterization of the extraction and distribution of outcrop cavities in the Dengying Formation (2nd Member) in Xianfeng, Ebian.

Results and discussion

In this section, we will use the multiscale regional convolutional neural network model designed in the previous section to conduct cavity extraction experiments on outcrop profile images. Furthermore, we will compare with traditional image recognition methods to verify the advantages of the model.

We presented the detection cavity results at different scales in two areas (Fig. 7). The resolution of the image is 2 mm and the size is 800 × 800 mm. Combined with the different number of detection

Conclusion

Data from the study of outcrops are the most intuitive, reliable and detailed resources in for sedimentary reservoir geology research. Based on high-precision profile image data from digital outcrops, a new method of cavity detection with a multiscale regional convolutional neural network was proposed, and used to automatically extract cavities and characterize the parameters of the Dengying Formation (2nd Member) in Xianfeng, Ebian. Through the research of this paper, the following

Computer code availability

Name of code: Automatic-Extraction-of-Outcrop-Cavity.

Contact details: School of Geosciences, Yangtze University, Wuhan, 430,100, China;

Email: [email protected].

Year first available: 2021.

Program language: Python.

Details on how to access the source code: https://github.com/irene-wsq/Automatic-Extraction-of-Outcrop-Cavity.

Authorship statement

Qing Wang: guided the algorithm design, designed the experiment and helped to organize the manuscript.

Siqi Wu: wrote the manuscript and performed the experimental analysis.

Qihong Zeng and Youyan Zhang: provided the data used in the experiment.

Yanlin Shao: obtained the input data and contributed in the code.

Fan Deng: obtained the input data and provided ideas for the experimental part.

Yuangang Liu: adjusted the experimental parameters and checked the manuscript.

Wei Wei: supervised the work and

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Remote Sensing Institute of Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED) in China for providing the awesome field outcrop cavity data set. We would like to appreciate the financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41701537) and science and technology research project of Education Department of Hubei Province (Grant No. B2021040). We would also like to thank the developers in the Tensorflow and

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