Contact micromechanics in granular media with clay
- Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
Many granular materials, including sedimentary rocks and soils, contain clay particles in the pores, grain contacts, or matrix. The amount and location of the clays and fluids can influence the mechanical and hydraulic properties of the granular material. This research investigated the mechanical effects of clay at grain-to-grain contacts in the presence of different fluids. Laboratory seismic wave propagation tests were conducted at ultrasonic frequencies using spherical glass beads coated with Montmorillonite clay (SWy-1) onto which different fluids were adsorbed. For all bead samples, seismic velocity increased and attenuation decreased as the contact stiffnesses increased with increasing stress demonstrating that grain contacts control seismic transmission in poorly consolidated and unconsolidated granular material. Coating the beads with clay added stiffness and introduced viscosity to the mechanical contact properties that increased the velocity and attenuation of the propagating seismic wave. Clay-fluid interactions were studied by allowing the clay coating to absorb water, ethyl alcohol, and hexadecane. Increasing water amounts initially increased seismic attenuation due to clay swelling at the contacts. Attenuation decreased for higher water amounts where the clay exceeded the plastic limit and was forced from the contact areas into the surrounding open pore space during sample consolidation. This work investigates how clay located at grain contacts affects the micromechanical, particularly seismic, behavior of granular materials. The need for this work is shown by a review of the effects of clays on seismic wave propagation, laboratory measurements of attenuation in granular media, and proposed mechanisms for attenuation in granular media.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC03-76SF00098
- OSTI ID:
- 28325
- Report Number(s):
- LBL-36515; ON: DE95006566; TRN: AHC29510%%130
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: TH: Thesis (Ph.D.); PBD: Aug 1994
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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