Saturated permeability measurements on pumice and welded-tuffaceous materials
An experimental apparatus was designed and built to allow water-saturated permeabilities as low as 10{sup -18} m{sup 2} to be measured on cores of diameter 5 cm and length 10 cm under steady-state flow conditions. This same apparatus can also be utilized in a transient (pressure-decay) mode in order to measure permeabilities several orders of magnitude lower than the steady-state limit. Tests were conducted on samples of pumice, fractured welded tuff, and welded tuff, representing a permeability range of seven orders of magnitude. Based on present measurements and calculations, the following results were obtained: Liquid-saturated permeability of the pumice core from Mount St. Helens was 2.76 x 10{sup -12} m{sup 2}; the corresponding Ergun constant was 4.43 x 10{sup 11} kg/m{sup 4}. The ultimate compressive strength of this material was found to be greater than 1.8 MPa, but less than 3.6 MPa; liquid-saturated permeability of the unfractured welded-tuff core was 5.6 x 10{sup -19} m{sup 2}; liquid-saturated permeability for the fractured welded-tuff core was found to decay to 2 x 10{sup -18} m{sup 2} after long-time-scale exposures to continuous-flow and applied-load conditions, independent of the initial fracture state (open vs closed); with an initially closed (naturally existing) fracture, core permeability decreased by a factor of about 2 over a 200-h test period; with an initially open fracture, core permeability decreased by a factor of about 4 under the influence of a comparable load-time history to that experienced in the natural-fracture test; final core permeability was found to be reduced by an order of magnitude from its initial level during a total 700-h test period; and the final effective hydraulic fracture aperture was calculated to be 10{sup -6} m for both tests on the fractured welded-tuff core; the final effective fracture permeability was calculated to be 10{sup -13} m{sup 2}, five orders of magnitude greater than the matrix-material prmeability. 28 references, 10 figur
- Research Organization:
- Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC04-76DP00789
- OSTI ID:
- 59567
- Report Number(s):
- SAND-84-0126C; CONF-850101-1; ON: DE85001358
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: International congress on hydrology of rocks of low permeability, Tucson, AZ (United States), 7-12 Jan 1985; Other Information: PBD: 1985
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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