Title: Multistage Triaxial Tests on Laboratory-Formed Methane Hydrate-Bearing Sediments

Abstract

Abstract A sound understanding of the geomechanical behavior of hydrate‐bearing sediments (HBSs) is essential not only for assessing reservoir and wellbore stability during methane gas production but also for projecting the impact of global warming on the stability of geological settings that contain hydrates. This study experimentally investigated the geomechanical responses of laboratory‐formed methane‐HBS to triaxial shearing under drained conditions. The hydrate pore habit formed in the sediments is noncontact‐cementing, which is different from contact‐cementing or grain‐coating hydrate pore habits formed when the excessive gas method is used. The multistage triaxial test method, which shears a single specimen under different confinements, was employed to examine its applicability in measuring geomechanical properties of the HBS. Conventional single‐stage triaxial tests were also performed to serve as baselines. The results show that both the strength and stiffness of HBS increase with increased hydrate saturation and confining stress. Shear dilatancy increases with increased hydrate saturation and decreased confining stress. The peak strength and peak/postpeak shear dilation measured using the multistage tests are comparable to those using the single‐stage tests. However, the stiffness measured in later stress stages in the multistage tests was enhanced by the stress‐strain history of earlier stages. Therefore, the multistage testmore » offers an efficient way of measuring the strength and volumetric response of the HBS with a much smaller number of specimens than the single‐stage test. This benefits the geomechanical characterization of the HBS, as obtaining the pressure cores is extremely costly and preparing lab samples is usually sophisticated and time consuming.« less

Authors:

Choi, Jeong -Hoon  ^[1];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Choi, Jeong -Hoon"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-6713-3954"

Dai, Sheng ^[2]; Lin, Jeen -Shang  ^[3];

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Lin, Jeen -Shang"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-8382-7796"

Seol, Yongkoo ^[4]

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+ Show Author Affiliations

1. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); AECOM, Morgantown, WV (United States)
2. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); Georgia Inst. of Technology, Atlanta, GA (United States)
3. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); Univ. of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA (United States)
4. National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States)

Publication Date:

Tue Apr 17 00:00:00 EDT 2018

Research Org.:

National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)

OSTI Identifier:

1478390

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1786736

Grant/Contract Number:  

FE0004000

Resource Type:

Accepted Manuscript

Journal Name:

Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Volume: 123; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-9313

Publisher:

American Geophysical Union

Country of Publication:

United States

Language:

English

Subject:

58 GEOSCIENCES; multistage triaxial test; hydrate‐bearing sediments; shear strength; dilation; stiffness