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Experimental study on the influence of temperature cycle on low-rank coal permeability

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Abstract

The formation temperature is a key factor affecting coalbed methane (CBM) migration in reservoirs. Both the prediction of CBM production and prevention of mine gas disasters require the understanding on the controlling mechanism of temperature on coal permeability. We experimentally examined the evolution of permeability for natural low-rank coal samples under various stresses and cyclic temperature conditions. Apparent permeability and intrinsic permeability decrease significantly when the temperature increases and they only partially recover after the temperature returns. The permeability loss decreases greatly with the increasing number of temperature cycles. The permeability loss due to the rising temperature and the irreversible permeability loss for a whole temperature cycle decrease prominently with increasing confining stress. The impacts of swelling/shrinking of coal matrix, roughness of surface, pore compressibility and weakly bound water in coal on temperature sensitivity of coal permeability are investigated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430074, China

    JunPeng Zou & YuYong Jiao

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3800, Australia

    T. D. Rathnaweera

  3. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, China

    Hao Wang

Authors
  1. JunPeng Zou
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  2. YuYong Jiao
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  3. T. D. Rathnaweera
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  4. Hao Wang
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Correspondence to YuYong Jiao.

Additional information

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41731284 & 41902293), and the Postdoctoral Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 2017M622551).

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Zou, J., Jiao, Y., Rathnaweera, T.D. et al. Experimental study on the influence of temperature cycle on low-rank coal permeability. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 63, 1055–1065 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-019-1460-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-019-1460-6

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