Effect of changing water salinity on complex conductivity spectra of sandstones
We analyzed the influence of pore fluid composition on the complex electrical conductivity of three sandstones with differing porosity and permeability. The fluid electrical conductivity ([Formula: see text]) of sodium and calcium chloride solutions was gradually increased from 25 mS/m to 2300 mS/m. The expected linear relation between [Formula: see text] and the real component of electrical conductivity ([Formula: see text]) of the saturated samples was observed. The imaginary component ([Formula: see text]) exhibits a steeper increase at lower salinities that flattens at higher salinities. For a glauconitic sandstone and a high porosity Bunter sandstone, [Formula: see text] approaches an asymptotic value at high salinities. Sodium cations result in larger values of [Formula: see text] than calcium cations in solutions of equal concentration. Debye decomposition was used to determine normalized chargeability ([Formula: see text]) and average relaxation time ([Formula: see text]) from spectral data. The behavior of [Formula: see text] is comparable to [Formula: see text] as both parameters measure the polarizability. At lower salinity, the relation between [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] approximates a power law with an exponent of [Formula: see text]. The average relaxation time shows only a weak dependence on [Formula: see text]. The normalized chargeability of sandstone samples can be described by the product of the pore space related internal surface and a quantity characterizing the polarizability of the mineral-fluid interface that depends on fluid chemistry. We introduce a new parameter, the specific polarizability, describing this dependence. We propose relations between polarizability and fluid chemistry that could be used to estimate pore space internal surface across samples of varying [Formula: see text]. We observe a consistent maximum polarizability for quartz dominated siliceous material.