scholarly journals Frictional slip weakening and shear-enhanced crystallinity in simulated coal fault gouges at subseismic slip rates

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caiyuan Fan ◽  
Jinfeng Liu ◽  
Luuk B. Hunfeld ◽  
Christopher J. Spiers

Abstract. Previous studies show that organic-rich fault patches may play an important role in promoting unstable fault slip. However, the frictional properties of rock materials with near 100 % organic content, e.g. coal, and the controlling microscale mechanisms, remain unclear. Here, we report seven velocity stepping (VS) and one slide-hold-slide (SHS) friction experiments performed on simulated fault gouges prepared from bituminous coal, collected from the upper Silesian Basin of Poland. These experiments were performed at 25–45 MPa effective normal stress and 100 °C, employing sliding velocities of 0.1–100 μm s−1, using a conventional triaxial apparatus plus direct shear assembly. All samples showed marked slip weakening behaviour at shear displacements beyond ~ 1–2 mm, from a peak friction coefficient approaching ~ 0.5 to (near) steady state values of ~ 0.3, regardless of effective normal stress or whether vacuum dry flooded with distilled (DI) water at 15 MPa pore fluid pressure. Analysis of both unsheared and sheared samples by means of microstructural observation, micro-area X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy suggests that the marked slip weakening behaviour can be attributed to the development of R-, B- and Y- shear bands, with internal shear-enhanced coal crystallinity development. The SHS experiment performed showed a transient peak healing (restrengthening) effect that increased with the logarithm of hold time at a linearized rate of ~ 0.006. We also determined the rate-dependence of steady state friction for all VS samples using a full rate and state friction approach. This showed a transition from velocity strengthening to velocity weakening at slip velocities > 1 μm s−1 in the coal sample under vacuum dry conditions, but at > 10 μm s−1 in coal samples exposed to DI water at 15 MPa pore pressure. This may be controlled by competition between dilatant granular flow and compaction enhanced by presence of water. Together with our previous work on frictional properties of coal-shale mixtures, our results imply that the presence of a weak, coal-dominated patch on faults that cut or smear-out coal seams may promote unstable, seismogenic slip behaviour, though the importance of this in enhancing either induced or natural seismicity depends on local conditions.

Solid Earth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1399-1422
Author(s):  
Caiyuan Fan ◽  
Jinfeng Liu ◽  
Luuk B. Hunfeld ◽  
Christopher J. Spiers

Abstract. Previous studies show that organic-rich fault patches may play an important role in promoting unstable fault slip. However, the frictional properties of rock materials with nearly 100 % organic content, e.g., coal, and the controlling microscale mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we report seven velocity stepping (VS) experiments and one slide–hold–slide (SHS) friction experiment performed on simulated fault gouges prepared from bituminous coal collected from the upper Silesian Basin of Poland. These experiments were performed at 25–45 MPa effective normal stress and 100 ∘C, employing sliding velocities of 0.1–100 µm s−1 and using a conventional triaxial apparatus plus direct shear assembly. All samples showed marked slip-weakening behavior at shear displacements beyond ∼ 1–2 mm, from a peak friction coefficient approaching ∼0.5 to (nearly) steady-state values of ∼0.3, regardless of effective normal stress or whether vacuum-dry or flooded with distilled (DI) water at 15 MPa pore fluid pressure. Analysis of both unsheared and sheared samples by means of microstructural observation, micro-area X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy suggests that the marked slip-weakening behavior can be attributed to the development of R-, B- and Y-shear bands, with internal shear-enhanced coal crystallinity development. The SHS experiment performed showed a transient peak healing (restrengthening) effect that increased with the logarithm of hold time at a linearized rate of ∼0.006. We also determined the rate dependence of steady-state friction for all VS samples using a full rate and state friction approach. This showed a transition from velocity strengthening to velocity weakening at slip velocities >1 µm s−1 in the coal sample under vacuum-dry conditions but at >10 µm s−1 in coal samples exposed to DI water at 15 MPa pore pressure. The observed behavior may be controlled by competition between dilatant granular flow and compaction enhanced by the presence of water. Together with our previous work on the frictional properties of coal–shale mixtures, our results imply that the presence of a weak, coal-dominated patch on faults that cut or smear out coal seams may promote unstable, seismogenic slip behavior, though the importance of this in enhancing either induced or natural seismicity depends on local conditions.


2015 ◽  
Vol 42 (4) ◽  
pp. 1061-1067 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. David Watkins ◽  
Harmony V. Colella ◽  
Michael R. Brudzinski ◽  
Keith B. Richards-Dinger ◽  
James H. Dieterich

Geofluids ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Yuan Wang ◽  
Yu Jiao ◽  
Shaobin Hu

The progressive shear failure of a rock mass under hydromechanical coupling is a key aspect of the long-term stability of deeply buried, high fluid pressure diversion tunnels. In this study, we use experimental and numerical analysis to quantify the permeability variations that occur in an intact marble sample as it evolves from shear failure to shear slip under different confining pressures and fluid pressures. The experimental results reveal that at low effective normal stress, the fracture permeability is positively correlated with the shear displacement. The permeability is lower at higher effective normal stress and exhibits an episodic change with increasing shear displacement. After establishing a numerical model based on the point cloud data generated by the three-dimensional (3D) laser scanning of the fracture surfaces, we found that there are some contact areas that block the percolation channels under high effective stress conditions. This type of contact area plays a key role in determining the evolution of the fracture permeability in a given rock sample.


2020 ◽  
Vol 789 ◽  
pp. 228521
Author(s):  
Sho Kimura ◽  
Shohei Noda ◽  
Takuma Ito ◽  
Jun Katagiri ◽  
Hiroaki Kaneko ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisenda Bakker ◽  
Johannes H. P. de Bresser

Abstract. We aimed to evaluate various factors that control the frictional and transport properties of gouge-filled faults cutting carbonate-bearing shales or claystone formations. The research experimentally determined the effect of shear displacement, dynamic shearing, static holding, and effective normal stress on fault gouge permeability, both parallel and perpendicular to the fault boundaries, as well as on frictional behaviour. The simulated gouge was prepared from crushed Opalinus Claystone (OPA), on which we performed direct shear experiments. The direct-shear experiments (σneff = 5–50 MPa, Pf = 2 MPa, and T ≈ 20 °C) showed ~1 order of magnitude decrease in permeability with shear displacement (up to ~6 mm), for both along- and across-fault fluid flow orientation. Moreover, our data showed an initial, pre-shear permeability anisotropy of up to ~1 order of magnitude, which decreased with increasing shear displacement (maturity) to ~0.5, with the along-fault permeability being consistently higher. Our results have important implications for calcite-rich claystones and shale formations, and in particular any pre-existing faults therein, that seal hydrocarbon reservoirs and potential CO2 storage reservoirs, as the current results point to a higher leakage potential of pre-existing faults compared to the intact caprock.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel Ashman ◽  
Daniel Faulkner

<p>Many natural fault cores comprise volumes of extremely fine, low permeability, clay-bearing fault rocks. Should these fault rocks undergo transient volume changes in response to changes in fault slip velocity, the subsequent pore pressure transients would produce significant fault weakening or strengthening, strongly affecting earthquake nucleation and possibly leading to episodic slow slip events. Dilatancy at slow slip velocity has previously been measured in quartz-rich gouges but little is known about gouge containing clay. In this work, the mechanical behaviour of synthetic quartz-kaolinite fault gouges and their volume response to velocity step changes were investigated in a suite of triaxial deformation experiments at effective normal stresses of 60MPa, 25MPa and 10MPa. Kaolinite content was varied from 0 to 100wt% and slip velocity was varied between 0.3 and 3 microns/s.</p><p>Upon a 10-fold velocity increase or decrease, gouges of all kaolinite-quartz contents displayed measurable volume change transients. The results show the volume change transients are independent of effective normal stress but are sensitive to gouge kaolinite content. Peak dilation values did not occur in the pure quartz gouges, but rather in gouges containing 10wt% to 20wt% kaolinite. Above a kaolinite content of 10wt% to 20wt%, both dilation and compaction decreased with increasing gouge kaolinite content. At 25MPa effective normal stress, the normalised volume changes decreased from 0.1% to 0.06% at 10wt% to 100wt% kaolinite.  The gouge mechanical behaviour shows that increasing the gouge kaolinite content decreases the gouge frictional strength and promotes more stable sliding, rather than earthquake slip. Increasing the effective normal stress slightly decreases the frictional strength, enhances the chance of earthquake nucleation, and has no discernible effect on the magnitude of the pore volume changes during slip velocity changes.</p><p>Low permeabilities of clay-rich fault gouges, coupled with the observed volume change transients, could produce pore pressure fluctuations up to 10MPa in response to fault slip. This assumes no fluid escape from an isolated fault core. Where the permeability is finite, any pore pressure changes will be mediated by fluid influx into the gouge. Volume change transients could therefore be a significant factor in determining whether fault slip leads to earthquake nucleation or a dampened response, possibly resulting in episodic slow slip in low permeability fault rock volumes.</p>


2012 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
pp. 156-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabine A.M. den Hartog ◽  
Colin J. Peach ◽  
D.A. Matthijs de Winter ◽  
Christopher J. Spiers ◽  
Toshihiko Shimamoto

2012 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natália de Moraes Rudorff ◽  
Carla Van Der Haagen Custodio Bonetti ◽  
Jarbas Bonetti Filho

This study aimed to assess benthic impacts of suspended shellfish cultures in two marine farms located in South Bay, Florianópolis (SC, Brazil). The goal was to detect changes in the benthic layer and evaluate the influence of local conditions, such as hydrodynamics and geomorphology, on the degree of impact at each site. The method included analysis of three groups of oceanographic descriptors: hydrodynamic; morpho-sedimentological (bathymetry, grain size and organic content), and ecological (foraminiferal fauna). Data sets were analyzed using geostatistical and multivariate techniques. Ecological descriptors seemed to be more effective under different environmental conditions than sedimentological variables. Those that best identified culture-related biodeposits, were: dominance of Ammonia tepida; test size; and living: total population ratio. Only slight differences were observed within and outside the culture structures. However, a greater alteration was observed at the site with weaker hydrodynamics and located in shallower depths. The conclusion is that biodeposition at studied still causes little alteration in the local benthic environment. However, local factors such as hydrodynamics and geomorphology were shown to be important in minimizing these impacts. These are criteria that should be considered in site selection programs for the development of this productive activity.


Author(s):  
A. B. Hawkins ◽  
K. D. Privett

AbstractBS 5930 offers little assistance to engineers wishing to use residual strength parameters in slope stability analysis. It wrongly suggests the ring shear gives lower parameters than the shear box.BS 5930 does not mention the fact that the residual strength is stress dependent, hence the failure envelope is curved and the parameters must be assessed using an appropriate effective normal stress. For this reason the correlation charts relating ϕ′R to plasticity index or clay content need replacing with a series of charts in which these properties are plotted against ϕ′R values obtained at a number of effective normal stress loadings. Even then such correlations should be treated with caution.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 332-345
Author(s):  
Gökhan Altay ◽  
◽  
Cafer Kayadelen ◽  
Taha Taskiran ◽  
Baki Bagriacik ◽  
...  

The parameters concerning the interaction between geocell and granular materials is required for the design of many geotechnical structures. With this in mind, a series of experiments using simple direct shear tests are conducted in order to understand the frictional properties between geocells filled with granular materials. The 54 test samples are prepared by filling the geocell with granular materials having three different gradations. These samples are tested at three different relative densities under three different normal stress levels. As a result, it was observed that interface resistance between the geocells filled with granular material is found to be generally greater than in the samples without geocells. Additionally, these samples with geocells are found to be stiffer; this is due to the fact that the samples with geocell gained more cohesion because geocells confined the grains within a restricted volume.


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