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Stress dependent permeability and porosity of low-permeability rock

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Abstract

The seepage property of low-permeability rock is of significant importance for the design and safety analysis of underground cavities. By using a self-developed test system, both permeability and porosity of granite from an underground oil storage depot were measured. In order to study the influence of rock types on permeability, a tight sandstone was selected as a contrast. The experimental results suggested that the porosity of this granite is less than 5% and permeability is low to 10–20 m2 within the range of effective stress. During the loading process, both exponential relationship and power law can be utilized to describe the relationship between effective stress and permeability. However, power law matches the experimental data better during the unloading condition. The stress dependent porosity of granite during loading process can be described via an exponential relationship while the match between the model and experimental data can be improved by a power law in unloading paths. The correlation of permeability and porosity can be described in a power law form. Besides, granite shows great different evolution rules in permeability and porosity from sandstone. It is inferred that this difference can be attributed to the preparing of samples and different movements of microstructures subjected to effective stress.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute of Geotechnical Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Chao-jun Jia  (贾朝军), Wei-ya Xu  (徐卫亚), Huan-ling Wang  (王环玲), Ru-bin Wang  (王如宾), Jun Yu  (俞隽) & Long Yan  (闫龙)

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, M5S 1W8, Canada

    Chao-jun Jia  (贾朝军)

  3. Key Laboratory of Coastal Disaster and Defense, Ministry of Education, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Huan-ling Wang  (王环玲)

Authors
  1. Chao-jun Jia  (贾朝军)
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  2. Wei-ya Xu  (徐卫亚)
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  3. Huan-ling Wang  (王环玲)
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  4. Ru-bin Wang  (王如宾)
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  5. Jun Yu  (俞隽)
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  6. Long Yan  (闫龙)
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Correspondence to Chao-jun Jia  (贾朝军).

Additional information

Foundation item: Projects(11172090, 51479049, 11272113, 11572110, 51209075) supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China; Project(BK2012809) supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China; Project(201406710042) supported by China Scholarship Council

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Jia, Cj., Xu, Wy., Wang, Hl. et al. Stress dependent permeability and porosity of low-permeability rock. J. Cent. South Univ. 24, 2396–2405 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-017-3651-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11771-017-3651-1

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