scholarly journals STRESS EFFECT ON CEMENTATION FACTOR OF SANDSTONE ROCKS TYPE EVIDENCE FOR A VARIABLE ARCHIE POROSITY EXPONENT “m”

Author(s):  
Ali El-Aswad ◽  
Intesar Elagil ◽  
Salem Fatooh

Ancient sandstones include important reservoirs for hydrocarbons (oil and gas). This research provides an experimental investigation on the influence of variations in confining pressure on cementation factor of two wells located in Sirt basin. Measurements of formation resistivity factor versus cementation factor for sandstone samples which were collected from both wells at different confining pressures were carried out. The Effects of confining stress on the electrical properties of the rock samples were studied and analyzed. The results showed that the confining pressure variations depend on the pore structure of the studied rock. Furthermore, it can be concluded that the electrical resistivity of rocks is function of pore size distribution and how the fluids were distributed in the pore spaces. The effect of overburden pressure and the porosity variation on cementation factor is also investigated for different rock types. It has been concluded that the compaction due to overburden pressure generally causes a considerable increase in resistivity, especially in poorly cemented rocks. In low-porosity rocks, resistivity measurements determined under representative overburden pressures that are strongly recommended to improve well log interpretation.

Nafta-Gaz ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (5) ◽  
pp. 283-292
Author(s):  
Tomasz Topór ◽  

The application of machine learning algorithms in petroleum geology has opened a new chapter in oil and gas exploration. Machine learning algorithms have been successfully used to predict crucial petrophysical properties when characterizing reservoirs. This study utilizes the concept of machine learning to predict permeability under confining stress conditions for samples from tight sandstone formations. The models were constructed using two machine learning algorithms of varying complexity (multiple linear regression [MLR] and random forests [RF]) and trained on a dataset that combined basic well information, basic petrophysical data, and rock type from a visual inspection of the core material. The RF algorithm underwent feature engineering to increase the number of predictors in the models. In order to check the training models’ robustness, 10-fold cross-validation was performed. The MLR and RF applications demonstrated that both algorithms can accurately predict permeability under constant confining pressure (R2 0.800 vs. 0.834). The RF accuracy was about 3% better than that of the MLR and about 6% better than the linear reference regression (LR) that utilized only porosity. Porosity was the most influential feature of the models’ performance. In the case of RF, the depth was also significant in the permeability predictions, which could be evidence of hidden interactions between the variables of porosity and depth. The local interpretation revealed the common features among outliers. Both the training and testing sets had moderate-low porosity (3–10%) and a lack of fractures. In the test set, calcite or quartz cementation also led to poor permeability predictions. The workflow that utilizes the tidymodels concept will be further applied in more complex examples to predict spatial petrophysical features from seismic attributes using various machine learning algorithms.


2013 ◽  
Vol 291-294 ◽  
pp. 2657-2661
Author(s):  
Xiu Mei Qiu ◽  
Han Bing Bian

The mechanical behavior of a compacted unsaturated clay soil was experimentally investigated. Volume changes were investigated using a conventional odometer cell under a series of constant confining pressures, following a wetting path. The special loading paths were utilized to reflect field conditions associated with the compacted earth structure in earth filled embankment. The soils used in the experiments were taken from an earth dam. The compacted specimens were consolidated under k0-oedometer conditions. The volume change and the water content variation were measured during the tests. The influence of the confining pressure and the initial water saturation were taking into considerations. The experimental results show that the volumetric deformation properties of the remolded unsaturated soil could be expansive and/or contractive, depending on the confining pressure and the initial water saturation. It is also observed that for the mediate confining stress, there volumetric deformation of specimen applied to wetting loads has a transition from dilation to contraction.


2016 ◽  
Vol 38 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sidali Denine ◽  
Noureddine Della ◽  
Muhammed Rawaz Dlawar ◽  
Feia Sadok ◽  
Jean Canou ◽  
...  

Abstract This paper presents results of a series of undrained monotonic compression tests on loose sand reinforced with geotextile mainly to study the effect of confining stress on the mechanical behaviour of geotextile reinforced sand. The triaxial tests were performed on reconstituted specimens of dry natural sand prepared at loose relative density (Dr = 30%) with and without geotextile layers and consolidated to three levels of confining pressures 50, 100 and 200 kPa, where different numbers and different arrangements of reinforcement layers were placed at different heights of the specimens (0, 1 and 2 layers). The behaviour of test specimens was presented and discussed. Test results showed that geotextile inclusion improves the mechanical behaviour of sand, a significant increase in the shear strength and cohesion value is obtained by adding up layers of reinforcement. Also, the results indicate that the strength ratio is more pronounced for samples which were subjected to low value of confining pressure. The obtained results reveal that high value of confining pressure can restrict the sand shear dilatancy and the more effect of reinforcement efficiently.


1965 ◽  
Vol 5 (03) ◽  
pp. 225-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kenneth K. Clark ◽  
Wilbur H. Somerton

Abstract The feasibility of reducing pressures needed to fracture formations by heating the borehole intensively has been investigated on a laboratory scale. Reductions in fracture pressures of heated Bandera, Berea and Boise sandstone cores were observed at various confining pressures, simulating reservoir stress conditions to a depth of 5,000 ft. Both permeable and impermeable borehole boundary conditions were tested. Three heating conditions were used in the tests. One group of samples was heated in a furnace to a temperature of 600C, cooled to room temperature, and then tested for fracture pressures. Two other groups of samples were heated with a borehole heater to maximum borehole wall temperatures of 625 and 792C, then cooled and tested. In all cases, heated samples showed substantial reductions in fracture pressures compared to unheated samples. The higher temperature borehole heated samples showed the greatest reduction, amounting to 70 per cent in the extreme case. In actual application to wells, it was concluded that fracture pressures may be reduced by 20 to 50 percent by intensive borehole heating before fracturing. INTRODUCTION Hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells is an accepted and effective technique for increasing well productivity in many areas, but is notoriously unsuccessful in other areas. The technique becomes less interesting for production stimulation purposes when excessive fracture pressures are necessary. Formations which do fracture but require high pressures, probably form horizontal fractures. There is good evidence to indicate that some formations do not fracture at all, but yield plastically under high pressure. Thus, any technique which will make formations easier to fracture or will reduce fracture pressures is potentially interesting to petroleum producers. Horizontal fractures generally occur in planes of weakness, such as bedding planes, and at pressures equaling or exceeding the effective overburden stress. In the unusual case where planes of weakness do not exist, a slightly higher pressure must be applied to overcome the tensile strength of the rock. In general, high fluid-loss fracturing fluids are conducive to the formation of horizontal fractures.1 Vertical fractures, when they do occur, are initiated at pressures generally lower than overburden pressure and are favored by low fluid-loss fracturing fluids or impermeable boreholes. The pressure necessary to create a vertical fracture in an impermeable, elastic medium can be predicted from the so-called "thick-walled cylinder" equation:Equation 1 where pf = fracture pressure sr=radial stress st=tensile strength of medium. This equation indicates that to fracture it is necessary to overcome a tangential compressive stress, induced by and equal to two times the radial confining stress, plus the tensile strength of the medium.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (15) ◽  
pp. 3164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ming Ji ◽  
Hongjun Guo

During loading and unloading test, various rocks manifest different stress values of elastic-plastic transformation. This study proposes to include axial pressure increment ratio in the conventional triaxial compression test to evaluate different variables (nominal elastic modulus, nominal Poisson’s ratio, strain, and energy). The relationships among various factors including variables, the stress level of initial confining stress and axial pressures, were analyzed by analyzing the stress–strain plot record obtained from testing various rocks. The extreme value point of the deformation parameter, also known as the elastic-plastic threshold, was analyzed. In addition, the elastic-plastic thresholds were later used as unloading points during the unloading tests. Under the same confining condition, different rocks demonstrated different unloading levels. Furthermore, a linear correlation was observed between unloading levels and changing confining pressures, and the gradient is mainly related to the types of rocks. During the unloading tests of rocks, the rational unloading level is recommended to be no higher than the stress level at the elastic-plastic threshold under the corresponding confining pressure.


Author(s):  
F Li ◽  
V M Puri

A medium pressure (<21 MPa) flexible boundary cubical triaxial tester was designed to measure the true three-dimensional response of powders. In this study, compression behaviour and strength of a microcrystalline cellulose powder (Avicel® PH102), a spray-dried alumina powder (A16SG), and a fluid-bed-granulated silicon nitride based powder (KY3500) were measured. To characterize the mechanical behaviour, three types of triaxial stress paths, that is, the hydrostatic triaxial compression (HTC), the conventional triaxial compression (CTC), and the constant mean pressure triaxial compression (CMPTC) tests were performed. The HTC test measured the volumetric response of the test powders under isostatic pressure from 0 to 13.79MPa, during which the three powders underwent a maximum volumetric strain of 40.8 per cent for Avicel® PH102, 30.5 per cent for A16SG, and 33.0 per cent for KY3500. The bulk modulus values increased 6.4-fold from 57 to 367MPa for Avicel® PH102, 3.7-fold from 174 to 637 MPa for A16SG, and 8.1-fold from 74 to 597MPa for KY3500, when the isotropic stress increased from 0.69 to 13.79 MPa. The CTC and CMPTC tests measured the shear response of the three powders. From 0.035 to 3.45MPa confining pressure, the shear modulus increased 28.7-fold from 1.6 to 45.9MPa for Avicel® PH102, 35-fold from 1.7 to 60.5MPa for A16SG, and 28.5-fold from 1.5 to 42.8MPa for KY3500. In addition, the failure stresses of the three powders increased from 0.129 to 4.41 MPa for Avicel® PH102, 0.082 to 3.62 MPa for A16SG, and 0.090 to 4.66MPa for KY3500, respectively, when consolidation pressure increased from 0.035 to 3.45MPa. In addition, the shear modulus and failure stress values determined from the CTC test at 2.07, 2.76, and 3.45MPa confining pressures are consistently greater than those from the CMPTC test at the same constant mean pressures. This observation demonstrates the influence of stress paths on material properties. The CTT is a useful tool for characterizing the three-dimensional response of powders and powder mixtures.


SPE Journal ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Zhiqi Zhong ◽  
Lionel Esteban ◽  
Reza Rezaee ◽  
Matthew Josh ◽  
Runhua Feng

Summary Applying the realistic cementation exponent (m) in Archie’s equation is critical for reliable fluid-saturation calculation from well logs in shale formations. In this study, the cementation exponent was determined under different confining pressures using a high-salinity brine to suppress the surface conductivity related to the cation-exchange capacity of clay particles. A total of five Ordovician shale samples from the Canning Basin, Australia, were used for this study. The shale samples are all illite-rich with up to 60% clay content. Resistivity and porosity measurements were performed under a series of confining pressures (from 500 to 8,500 psi). Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) was used to obtain porosity and pore-size distribution and to detect the presence of residual oil. The complex impedance of samples was determined at 1 kHz to verify the change in pore-size distribution using the POLARIS model (Revil and Florsch 2010). The variation of shale resistivity and the Archie exponent m at different pressures is caused by the closure of microfractures at 500 psi, the narrowing of mesopores/macropores between 500 and 3,500 psi, and the pore-throat reduction beyond 3,500 psi. This study indicates that unlike typical reservoirs, the Archie exponent m for shale is sensitive to depth of burial because of the soft nature of the shale pore system. An equation is developed to predict m under different pressures after microfracture closure. Our study provides recommended experimental procedures for the calculation of the Archie exponent m for shales, leading to improved accuracy for well-log interpretation within shale formations when using Archie-basedequations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Zhiwei Cai ◽  
Tongqing Wu ◽  
Jian Lu ◽  
Yue Wu ◽  
Nianchun Xu

The fracture of sandstone is closely related to the condition of internal microcracks and the fabric of micrograin. The macroscopic mechanical property depends on its microscopic structures. However, it is difficult to obtain the law of the microcrack growth under loading by experiments. A series of microscopic sandstone models were established with particle flow code 3D (PFC3D) and based on the triaxial experiment results on sandstones. The experimental and numerical simulations of natural and saturated sandstones under different confining pressures were implemented. We analyzed the evolution of rock deformation and the rock fracture development from a microscopic view. Results show that although the sandstones are under different confining pressures, the law of microcrack growth is the same. That is, the number of the microcracks increases slowly in the initial stage and then increases exponentially. The number of shear cracks is more than the tensile cracks, and the proportion of the shear cracks increases with the increase of confining pressure. The cracking strength of natural and saturated sandstones is 26% and 27% of the peak strength, respectively. Under low confining pressure, the total number of cracks in the saturated sample is 20% more than that of the natural sample and the strongly scattered chain is barely seen. With the increase of the confining pressure, the effect of water on the total number of cracks is reduced and the distribution of the strong chain is even more uniform. In other words, it is the confining pressure that mainly affects the distribution of the force chain, irrespective of the state of the rock, natural or saturated. The research results reveal that the control mechanism of shear crack friction under the different stress states of a rock slope in the reservoir area provides a basis for evaluating the stability of rock mass and predicting the occurrence of geological disasters.


2000 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
M Hesham El Naggar ◽  
Jin Qi Wei

Tapered piles have a substantial advantage with regard to their load-carrying capacity in the downward frictional mode. The uplift performance of tapered piles, however, has not been fully understood. This paper describes the results of an experimental investigation into the characteristics of the uplift performance of tapered piles. Three instrumented steel piles with different degrees of taper were installed in cohesionless soil and subjected to compressive and tensile load tests. The soil was contained in a steel soil chamber and pressurized using an air bladder to facilitate modelling the confining pressures pertinent to larger embedment depths. The results of this study indicated that the pile axial uplift capacity increased with an increase in the confining pressure for all piles examined in this study. The ratios of uplift to compressive load for tapered piles were less than those for straight piles of the same length and average embedded diameter. The uplift capacity of tapered piles was found to be comparable to that of straight-sided wall piles at higher confining pressure values, suggesting that the performance of actual tapered piles (with greater length) would be comparable to that of straight-sided wall piles. Also, the results indicated that residual stresses developed during the compressive loading phase and their effect were more significant on the initial uplift capacity of piles, and this effect was more pronounced for tapered piles in medium-dense sand.Key words: tapered piles, uplift, axial response, load transfer, experimental modelling.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Linna Sun ◽  
Liming Zhang ◽  
Yu Cong ◽  
Yaduo Song ◽  
Keqiang He

AbstractFailure tests on marble during unloading confining-pressure under constant axial stress and simulations with the particle flow code were performed. The influence mechanism of the unloading rate of the confining pressure, initial unloading stress, and confining pressure on the failure characteristics of, and crack propagation in, marble was studied. By using the trial-and-error method, the conversion relationship between the unloading rates of confining pressures in laboratory tests and numerical simulations was ascertained. Micro-cracks formed in the unloading process of confining pressure are dominated by tension cracks, accompanied by shear cracks. The propagation of shear cracks lags that of tension cracks. As the confining pressure is increased, more cracks occur upon failure of the samples. The proportion of shear cracks increases while that of tension cracks decreases. The failure mode of samples undergoes a transition from shear-dominated failure to conjugated shear failure.


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