Laboratory measurement of Biot’s coefficient and pore pressure influence on poroelastic rock behaviour
Hossein Salemi A C , Stefan Iglauer B , Ali Rezagholilou A and Mohammad Sarmadivaleh AA Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia.
B School of Engineering, Edith Cowan University, 270 Joondalup Drive, Joondalup, WA 6027, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: salemi.hossein@curtin.edu.au
The APPEA Journal 58(1) 182-189 https://doi.org/10.1071/AJ17069
Submitted: 3 December 2017 Accepted: 15 February 2018 Published: 28 May 2018
Abstract
Understanding rock behaviour as a function of pore pressure and confining pressure is crucial for petroleum and geomechanical analysis. Indeed, deformation and local stress variations within hydrocarbon reservoirs and their surroundings occur due to pore pressure changes. Theoretically, pore pressure changes coupled with stress variations in hydrocarbon reservoirs are a function of the Biot’s coefficient, the elastic properties of the rock and the reservoir shape. Thus, in this study, the Biot’s coefficient was measured as a function of porosity, permeability, and volumetric strain for five Gosford sandstone samples. A triaxial loading system was used to measure rock volumetric strain while pore pressure and confining pressure were varied. The constant deformation technique was employed for these experiments; i.e. the variation of pore pressure created a volumetric strain, and the confining pressure required to restore the original volumetric strain was measured to calculate Biot’s coefficient. For the investigated samples, measured liquid permeabilities were in the range of 7–10 mD and Biot’s coefficients were 0.84–0.91. This is consistent with similar investigations by other researchers in which measured Biot’s coefficients were in the range of 0.65–0.90. This study thus illustrates how liquid permeability and the Biot’s coefficient decrease as a function of confining pressure.
Keywords: permeability, triaxial test, volumetric strain.
Hossein Salemi is a PhD student at the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University, Western Australia. His current research focuses on 3D numerical/experimental simulations of sandstone reservoirs considering poroelasticity. He holds a Bachelor of Chemical Engineering from Azad University of Tehran and a Masters of Petroleum Engineering from Curtin University of Technology. |
Stefan Iglauer is an Associate Professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering at Curtin University. His research interests are in carbon dioxide geo-storage, wettability, and multiphase flow through porous rock with a focus on atomic- to pore-scale processes. He has published more than 100 technical publications and holds a PhD in Material Science from Oxford Brookes University (UK) and an MSc in Chemistry from the University of Paderborn (Germany). |
Ali Rezagholilou is a registered professional civil/geomechanical engineer with a proven track record in research, consultancy, construction, and project management. He has over 15 years of experience in civil, petroleum, mining, and offshore engineering and significant experience in geotechnical or geomechanical challenges in a broad range of research and industry projects. |
Mohammad Sarmadivaleh is a lecturer at the Department of Petroleum Engineering, Curtin University and leads the Petroleum Geo-mechanics Group. He received his PhD from Curtin University in numerical and experimental studies on hydraulic fracturing in 2012. His research interests include hydraulic fracturing, sanding, geomechanical reservoir modelling, and carbon dioxide sequestration studies. He currently supervises 20 higher degree by research students and participates in academic and industrial research projects. |
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