Аннотация:A new technique has been developed for non-contact, optical scanning, of rock cores to provide simultaneous, continuous, high resolution, and precision measurements for evaluation of thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, and volumetric heat capacity. The technique is rapid and does not damage the core. New and valuable information from the continuous thermal scanning are the direct measurement of thermal heterogeneity and thermal anisotropy. The measured thermal heterogeneity reflects variations in rock fabric and composition (mineral, organic content and pore fluids) that also drive the variability of other rock properties (e.g., porosity, permeability, cementing, particle contact, saturation, etc). Measurements of continuous thermal properties and thermal heterogeneity provide a direct indication about scale dependence, and the variability in thermal properties from the millimeter scale to the length of the core (hundreds of meters or feet). The measurements help also identifying thermal behavior of rock classes defined at the core and log scale. The application of this new technique contributes to rapid reservoir thermal characterization and subsequent modeling. It provides a workflow for evaluating reservoir thermal conditions, thermal losses, mass transfer in the reservoir, and the overall efficiency of recovery methods. Copyright 2013 ARMA, American Rock Mechanics Association.