From Rock Cuttings to Physical Properties: Integrating Digital Rock Physics and Borehole Data from Traunreut, Southern Germany.

Digital Rock Physics (DRP) methods are increasingly used to link high‑resolution 3D imaging with the numerical determination of rock properties. In this work, we present new results from the SimBoL project, which applies this approach to drill cuttings from a borehole in Traunreut, southern Germany. The goal is to evaluate the potential of non‑core material for reliable petrophysical characterization relevant to geothermal applications.​

High‑resolution X‑ray computed tomography (CT) scans were segmented to obtain representative digital samples of carbonate cuttings, from which mineral composition, thermal conductivity and permeability were derived. A subset of these properties was computed using an updated numerical solver that incorporates periodic boundary conditions, enabling the treatment of irregular cutting geometries without relying on subvolumes or sample reshaping, and thereby allowing the use of larger rock volumes and a more realistic representation of heat and fluid transport processes than previous approaches restricted to cubic domains.​

The ongoing simulations yield quantitative estimates of rock properties that are compared with available borehole data and complemented by observations from thin sections. The analysis illustrates how digital twins of rock cuttings can deliver additional information on the internal architecture of reservoir rocks, reducing dependence on costly core material and strengthening the conceptual basis for geothermal reservoir characterization.