Strain-Softening Model for Hydrate-Bearing Sands
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 15, Issue 6
Abstract
The extraction of methane gas from hydrate-bearing sediments has garnered increasing global interest in recent years. Understanding the sediment response to potential production scenarios is vital for both accurate reservoir response simulation as well as the development of field extraction methodologies. Gas hydrate has an icelike structure, and when present within sediments it will significantly alter their geomechanical behavior. Of particular interest in this paper is the observed strain-softening response of hydrate-bearing sands during drained shearing. Experimental results indicate that the strain softening during shearing is related to deviatoric behavior. A new analytical strain-softening model is proposed in which a direct relationship between volumetric expansion and reduction in hydrate saturation is developed. In the proposed model, the apparent cohesion of hydrate-bearing sediment reduces with increasing plastic shear strain. To validate the model, it was implemented into a standard numerical code, and the results were compared with those obtained from an advanced hydrate-soil numerical simulator. The model is also compared with experimental results from drained shear tests conducted on hydrate-bearing sands. The deviatoric stress results of the analytical model and numerical simulation were found to be almost identical, indicating the validity of the simple analytical formulation. In addition, the analytical model showed good agreement with the experimental results.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Alsaleh, M., Alshibli, K., and Voyiadjis, G. (2006). “Influence of micromaterial heterogeneity on strain localization in granular materials.” Int. J. Geomech., 248–259.
Bolton, M. D. (1986). “The strength and dilatancy of sands.” Geotechnique, 36(1), 65–78.
Coop, M. R., and Atkinson, J. H. (1993). “The mechanics of carbonated sands.” Geotechnique, 43(1), 53–67.
Desai, C., Pradhan, S., and Cohen, D. (2005). “Cyclic testing and constitutive modeling of saturated sand–concrete interfaces using the disturbed state concept.” Int. J. Geomech., 286–294.
Ebinuma, T., Kamata, Y., Minagawa, H., Ohmura, R., Nagao, J., and Narita, H. (2005). “Mechanical properties of sandy sediment containing methane hydrate.” Proc., 5th Int. Conf. on Gas Hydrates, Fagbokforlaget Vigmostad & Bjorke AS, Trondheim, Norway, 958–961.
Galavi, V., and Schweiger, H. (2010). “Nonlocal multilaminate model for strain softening analysis.” Int. J. Geomech., 30–44.
Grozic, J. L. H., and Ghiassian, H. (2010). “Undrained shear strength of methane hydrate-bearing sand; preliminary laboratory results.” Proc., 63rd Canadian Geotechnical Conf., Calgary, Alberta, 459–466.
Hong, H., and Pooladi-Darvish, M. (2005). “Simulation of depressurization for gas production from gas hydrate reservoirs.” J. Can. Pet. Technol., 44(11), 39–46.
Huang, J. T, and Airey, D. W. (1998). “Properties of artificially cemented carbonate sand.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 462–499.
Hyodo, M., et al. (2013). “Mechanical behavior of gas-saturated methane hydrate-bearing sediments.” J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 118(10), 5185–5194.
Itasca. (2005). Flac 5.0 user’s manual, Itasca Consulting Group, Minneapolis.
Jayasinghe, A. G. (2013) “Undrained triaxial compression strength of methane hydrate bearing sediments.” Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada.
Klar, A., Soga, K., and Ng, M. Y. A. (2010). “Coupled deformation-flow analysis for methane hydrate extraction.” Geotechnique, 60(10), 765–776.
Klar, A., Uchida, S., Soga, K., and Yamamoto, K. (2012). “Explicitly coupled thermal-flow-mechanical formulation for gas hydrate sediments.” SPE J., 18(2), 196–206.
Kvenvolden, K. A., and Lorenson, T. D. (2001). “The global occurrence of natural gas hydrate.” Geophysical Monograph 124, American Geophysical Union, Washington, DC, 3–18.
Masui, A., Miyazaki, K., Haneda, H., Ogata, Y., and Aoki, K. (2008). “Mechanical characteristics of natural and artificial gas hydrate bearing sediments.” Paper 5697 presented at Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Gas Hydrates, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 6–10.
Miyazaki, K., Masui, A., Sakamoto, Y., Aoki, K., Tenma, N., and Yamaguchi T. (2011). “Triaxial compressive properties of artificial methane-hydrate-bearing sediment.” J. Geophys. Res., 116(B06102).
Miyazaki, K., Tenma, N., Aoki, K., and Yamaguchi, T. (2012). “A nonlinear elastic model for triaxial compressive properties of artificial methane-hydrate-bearing sediment samples.” Energies, 5(10), 4057–4075.
Pinkert, S., and Grozic, J. L. H. (2013). “An analytical-experimental investigation of gas hydratebearing sediment properties.” Canadian Geotechnical Conf. and the 11th Joint CGS/IAHCNC Ground Water Conf., Montreal, QC.
Priest, J. A., Best, A. I., and Clayton, C. R. I. (2005). “A laboratory investigation into the seismic velocities of methane gas hydrate-bearing sand.” J. Geophys. Res. Solid Earth, 110(B04102).
Priest, J. A., Rees, E. V. L., and Clayton, C. R. I. (2009). “Influence of gas hydrate morphology on the seismic velocities of sands.” J. Geophys. Res., 114(B11205).
Santamarina, J., and Ruppel, C. (2008). “The impact of hydrate saturation on the mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties of hydrate-bearing sand, silts, and clay.” Proc., 6th Int. Conf. on Gas Hydrates, Vancouver, BC, Canada, 373–384.
Santamarina, J., and Ruppel, C. (2010). “The impact of hydrate saturation on the mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties of hydrate-bearing sand, silts, and clay.” Geophysical characterization of gas hydrates, M. Riedel, E. C. Willoughby, and S. Chopra, eds., Vol. 14, Soc. Exploration Geophysics, Tulsa, OK, 373–384.
Sloan, E. D., Jr. (1998). Clathrate hydrates of natural gases, Marcel Dekker, New York.
Sultan, N., and Garziglia, S. (2011). “Geomechanical constitutive modelling of gas-hydrate-bearing sediments.” Proc., 7th Int. Conf. on Gas Hydrates, Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K.
Waite, W. F., et al. (2009). “Physical properties of hydrate bearing sediments.” Rev. Geophys., 47(4).
Wang, Y.-H., and Leung, S.-C. (2008). “Particulate-scale investigation of cemented sand behavior.” Can. Geotech. J., 45(1), 29–44.
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.
Yun, T. S., Santamarina, J. C., and Ruppel, C. (2007). “Mechanical properties of sand, silt, and clay containing tetrahydrofuran hydrate.” J. Geophys. Res., 112(B04106).
Zhang, X.-H., Lu, X.-B., Zhang, L.-M., Wang, S.-Y., and Li, Q.-P. (2012). “Experimental study on mechanical properties of methane-hydrate-bearing sediments.” Acta Mech. Sin., 28(5), 1356–1366.
Zhou, H., and Randolph, M. (2007). “Computational techniques and shear band development for cylindrical and spherical penetrometers in strain-softening clay.” Int. J. Geomech., 287–295.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 15 • Issue 6 • December 2015
Copyright
© 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: May 2, 2014
Accepted: Nov 20, 2014
Published online: Apr 17, 2015
Discussion open until: Sep 17, 2015
Published in print: Dec 1, 2015
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.