Application of Methane Hydrate Critical State Soil Model on Multistage Triaxial Tests of Methane Hydrate-Bearing Sediment
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 22, Issue 7
Abstract
Natural methane hydrate, as a potential alternative energy source to fossil energy in the 21st century, is found in abundance in deep-water sediments and permafrost regions. During the production of methane gas from these sediments, the dissociation process may induce various changes to the geotechnical properties. Thus, it is important to study the geomechanical behavior of hydrate sediments and simulate the sediment deformation patterns. In this study, the effects of different sediment types on the mechanical properties of hydrate-bearing soils were investigated using multistage triaxial tests, and the methane hydrate critical state (MHCS) soil model was calibrated using an optimization-based technique. The results revealed that: (1) the strain-hardening phenomenon in methane hydrate-bearing sediments varies with the particle sizes of the host sediments; (2) the strengths of methane hydrate-bearing sediments are higher with the host sediments being pure sand, compared with those with clay-added sediments, and the strength is inversely proportional to the clay contents in these sediments; and (3) the multistage triaxial test data were fitted with the MHCS model, which illustrates the combined effects of the abovementioned factors on the model parameters and geomechanical behavior of methane hydrate-bearing sediments.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51876211, 52004261, and 51976227), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (Project No. 2021A0505030053), the Guangdong Special Support Program (Grant No. 2019BT02L278), PetroChina Innovation Foundation (Grant No. 2019D-5007-0216), and Fund of Key Laboratory of Gas Hydrate Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. E029020501). The authors also thank Dr. Yat Fai Andy Leung of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University for giving a lot of comments and suggestions.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 22 • Issue 7 • July 2022
Copyright
© 2022 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 9, 2020
Accepted: Feb 8, 2022
Published online: May 10, 2022
Published in print: Jul 1, 2022
Discussion open until: Oct 10, 2022
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