Investigation of the Stress–Strain and Strength Behaviors of Ice Containing Methane Hydrate
Publication: Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 4
Abstract
Mechanical properties and deformation behaviors of methane hydrate are important to assess the stability of gas hydrate reservoirs. In this study, using a high-pressure and low-temperature triaxial testing apparatus, the stress–strain relationship and strength of ice containing methane hydrate were studied. The results showed that the strength increased with a decrease of temperature, and the stress–strain relationship showed an elastoplastic strain-hardening behavior. When the confining pressure was less than 10 MPa, the strength increased with confining pressure. Also, it decreased with further increases of confining pressure beyond 10 MPa.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Major Project, China (Grant No. 2011ZX05026−04); the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (Grant No. 2006AA09209−5); the Key Program of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50736001); and the New Teacher’s Fund for the Doctoral Stations, the Ministry of Education, (Grant No. 20100041120037). Sincere thanks are offered to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their critical comments to improve this paper.
References
Alkire, D. B., and Andersland, B. O. (1973). “The effect of confining pressure on the mechanical properties of sand-ice materials.” J. Glaciol., 12(66), 469–481.
Chamberlain, E. J., Groves, C., and Perham, R. (1972). “The mechanical behavior of frozen earth materials under high pressure triaxial test conditions.” Geotechnique, 22(3), 469–483.
Drucker, D. C., and Prager, W. (1952). “Soil mechanics and plastic analysis of limit design.” Q. Appl. Math., 10(2), 157–165.
Ehrlich, D. (2001). “Submarine methane hydrates—Potential fuel resource of the 21st century.” Proc. AP Akad. Sci., 5(2), 101–114.
Grozic, J. L. H. (2010). “Interplay between gas hydrates and submarine slope failure.” Adv. Nat. Technol. Hazards Res., Mosher, D. C. et al.eds., 28(I), 11–30.
Hyodo, M., Nakata, Y., Yoshimoto, N., and Ebinuma, T. (2005). “Basic research on the mechanical behavior of methane hydrate-sediments mixture.” Soils Found., 45(1), 75–85.
Hyodo, M., Nakata, Y., Yoshimoto, N., Orense, R., and Yoneda, J. (2009). “Bonding strength by methane hydrate formed among sand particles.” Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Micromechanics of Granular Media, AIP Conf. Proc., Vol. 1145, American Institute of Physics, New York, 79–82.
Jones, S. J., and Hemming, A. M. C. (1983). “Creep of ice as a function of hydrostatic pressure.” J. Phys. Chem., 87(21), 4064–4066.
Kayen, R. E., and Lee, H. J. (1991). “Pleistocene slope instability of gas hydrate-laden sediment on the Beaufort Sea Margin.” Marine Geotechnol., 10(1), 125–141.
Kayen, R. E., and Lee, H. J. (2002). “Slope stability in regions of seafloor gas hydrate: Beaufort Sea continental slope.” Submarine landslides: Selected studies in the U.S. exclusive economic zone, Schwab, W. C. et al.eds., USGS, Washington, DC, 97–103.
Kvenvolden, K. A. (1993). “Gas hydrates-geological perspective and global change.” Rev. Geophys., 31(2), 173–187.
Kvenvolden, K. A., and Lorenson, T. D. (2001). “The global occurrence of natural gas hydrate.” Natural gas hydrates: Occurrence, distribution, and detection, geophysical monograph series, Vol. 124, Paull, C. K., and Dillon, W. P., eds., AGU, Washington, DC, 3–18.
Li, Y. H., Song, Y. C., Liu, W., and Yu, F. (2012). “Experimental research on the mechanical properties of methane hydrate-ice mixtures.” Energ., 5(2), 181–192.
Li, Y. H., Song, Y. C., Yu, F., Liu, W. G., and Zhao, J. F. (2011). “Experimental study on mechanical properties of gas hydrate-bearing sediments using kaolin clay.” China Ocean Eng., 25(1), 113–122.
Ma, W., Wu, Z., and Zhang, C. (1993). “The strength and yield criteria of the frozen soils.” J. Glaciol. Geocryol., 15(1), 129–133.
Ma, W., Wu, Z., Zhang, L., and Chang, X. (1999). “Analyses of process on the strength decrease in frozen soils under high confining pressures.” Cold. Reg. Sci. Technol., 29(1), 1–7.
Masui, A., Haneda, H., Ogata, Y., and Aoki, K. (2005). “The effect of saturation degree of methane hydrate on the shear strength of synthetic methane hydrate sediments.” Proc., 5th Int. Conf. on Gas Hydrates (ICGH 2005), Curran Associates, Red Hook, NY.
McIver, R. D. (1982). “Role of naturally occurring gas hydrates in sediment transport.” AAPG Bull., 66(6), 789–792.
Miyazaki, K., Masui, A., Aoki, K., Sakamoto, Y., Yamaguchi, T., and Okubo, S. (2010). “Strain-rate dependence of triaxial compressive strength of artificial methane-hydrate–bearing sediment.” Int. J. Offshore Polar Eng., 20(4), 256–264.
Miyazaki, K., Masui, A., Haneda, H., Ogata, Y., and Aoki, K. (2008). “Mechanical characteristics of natural and artificial gas hydrate bearing sediments.” Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Gas Hydrates (ICGH 2008), Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Nixon, M. F., and Grozic, J. L. H. (2007). “Submarine slope failure due to gas hydrate dissociation: A preliminary quantification.” Can. Geotech. J., 44(3), 314–325.
Qi, J., and Ma, W. (2007). “A new criterion for strength of frozen sand under quick triaxial compression considering effect of confining pressure.” Acta Geotechnica, 2(3), 221–226.
Singh, S. K., and Jordaan, I. J. (1996). “Triaxial tests on crushed ice.” J. Cold Reg. Sci. Tech., 24(2), 153–165.
Sloan, E. D., and Koh, C. A. (2007). Clathrate hydrates of natural gases, 3rd Ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton, FL, 721–722.
Song, Y. C., Yu, F., Li, Y. H., Liu, W. G., and Zhao, J. F. (2010). “Mechanical property of artificial methane hydrate under triaxial compression.” J. Nat. Gas Chem., 19(3), 246–250.
Vyalov, S. S., Zaretskii Yu, K., and Gorodenskii, S. F. (1981). Strength and creep analyses in ground freezing problem, Strogizdat, Leningrad, Russia (in Russian).
Winters, W. J., Waite, W. F., Mason, D. H., Gilbert, L. Y., and Pecher, I. A. (2007). “Methane gas hydrate effect on sediment acoustic and strength properties.” J. Pet. Sci. Eng., 56(1–3), 127–135.
Yu, F., and Lam, W. H. (2011). “Analyses of stress strain behavior and constitutive model of artificial methane hydrate.” J. Pet. Sci. Eng., 77(2), 183–188.
Yu, F., Song, Y. C., Liu, W. G., and Li, Y. H. (2010). “Study on shear strength of artificial methane hydrate.” Proc., 29th Int. Conf. on Ocean, Offshore and Arctic Engineering, Vol. 4, ASME, New York, 705–710.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Cold Regions Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 4 • December 2012
Pages: 149 - 159
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 29, 2011
Accepted: Apr 30, 2012
Published online: May 2, 2012
Published in print: Dec 1, 2012
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.