Laboratory measurement of longitudinal wave velocity of artificial gas hydrate under different temperatures and pressures

Abstract

The longitudinal wave velocity and attenuation measurements of artificial gas hydrate samples at a low temperature are reported. And the temperature and pressure dependence of longitudinal wave velocity is also investigated. In order to understand the acoustic properties of gas hydrate, the pure ice, the pure tetrahydrofuran (THF), the pure gas hydrate samples and sand sediment containing gas hydrate are measured at a low temperature between 0°C and −15°C. For the pure ice, the pure THF and the pure gas hydrate samples, whose density is 898 kg/m³, 895 kg/m³ and 475 kg/m³, the velocity of longitudinal wave is respectively 3574 m/s, 3428 m/s and 2439 m/s. For synthesized and compacted samples, the velocity of synthesized samples is lower than that of compacted samples. The velocities increase when the densities of the samples increase, while the attenuation decreases. Under the condition of low temperature, the results show that the velocity is slightly affected by the temperature. The results also show that wave velocities increase with the increase of piston pressures. For example, the velocity of one sample increases from 3049 up to 3337 m/s and the other increases from 2315 up to 2995 m/s. But wave velocity decreases from 3800 to 3546 m/s when the temperature increases from −15°C to 5°C and changes significantly close to the melting point. Formation conditions of the two samples are the same but with different conversion ratios of water. The results of the experiment are important for exploration of the gas hydrate resources and development of acoustic techniques.