scholarly journals Effects of Clay Content on Pore Structure Characteristics of Marine Soft Soil

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 1160
Author(s):  
Wencan Jiao ◽  
Dong Zhou ◽  
Yetian Wang

This study investigates the pore structure characteristics of a marine soft soil of the Beibu Gulf, Guangxi Province, China and its variation with clay content. Pore-size distribution was measured by Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and analyzed based on fractal theory. The analysis of the results relies on the distinction of several types of pores: micropores, small pores, mesopores and macropores, separated by the critical pore diameters of 0.02 μm, 0.18 μm and 0.78 μm, respectively. Mesopores and small pores were dominant, accounting for more than 75% of the total pore volume. Small pore volume increases with clay content at the expense of the mesopore volume. Between 22.31% and 32.31% clay, the connectivity of pores improves with clay content, while the tortuosity of pores increases from 22.31% to 32.31% of clay and then decreases between 32.31% and 37.31% clay. Marine soft soil in the Beibu Gulf is characterized by multiple fractal dimensions. Macropores had a large (close to 3) fractal dimension, independent of clay content. Mesopores and small pores had a smaller fractal dimension comprised between 2.1 and 2.4, while the fractal dimension of micropores did not exceed 1.5. The fractal dimension of mesopores and micropores are influenced significantly by the clay content. The study of the porosity of the marine soft soil of the Beibu Gulf could serve as a useful basis for the prediction of its hydraulic properties.

2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (5) ◽  
pp. 1484-1514 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rongfang Qin ◽  
Anmin Wang ◽  
Daiyong Cao ◽  
Yingchun Wei ◽  
Liqi Ding ◽  
...  

The physical properties of thick coal seams show strong vertical heterogeneity; thus, an accurate characterization of their pore structure is essential for coalbed methane (CBM) exploration and production. A total of 18 coal samples, collected from a thick coal seam in the Yili Basin of NW China, were tested by a series of laboratory experiments to investigate the peat mire evolution and pore structure characteristics. The results show that the No. 4 coal seam has undergone multiple stages of evolution in the peatification stage, and was divided into four water-transgression/water-regression cycles according to the regular cyclic changes of the vitrinite/inertinite ratio, structure preservation index, gelification index, vegetation index, trace element ratios, and stable carbon isotopes of organic matter. The changes of pore structure characteristics with the changes of coal deposition cycles are also analyzed. It is concluded that pore structure characteristics of the four cycles are quite different. In each water-transgression cycle, the vitrinite gradually increased and the inertinite gradually decreased, resulting in a decrease of the porosity, pore volume, specific surface area, and fractal dimension. While in each water-regression cycle, the vitrinite gradually decreased and the inertinite gradually increased, leading to an increase of the porosity, pore volume, specific surface area, and fractal dimension. A strong relationship exists between the porosity, pore volume, specific surface area, fractal dimension, and submacerals, with fusinite and semifusinite which contained more pores having a positive correlation, desmocollinite and corpovitrinite which contained few pores having a negative correlation.


Author(s):  
Debin Xia ◽  
Zhengming Yang ◽  
Tiening Gao ◽  
Haibo Li ◽  
Wei Lin

Abstract Porosity is the most common form of reservoirs, and its size, shape, and connectivity directly affect the capacity of oil and gas storage and production. To study the micro–nano-pore structure characteristics of shale oil reservoirs and quantitatively characterize its heterogeneity, this work uses high-precision high-pressure mercury intrusion (HPMI) experimental techniques to study the micro–nano-pore structure characteristics of shale oil, and based on the experimental data, fractal theory is used to quantitatively characterize its heterogeneity. The results of the study show that the micro–nano-pores in the shale oil reservoir are concentrated and continuous, and the pore radius is mainly distributed among the range of 30–500 nm, nanoscale pores are an important part of the pores of the shale oil reservoir. The fractal dimension of the shale oil reservoir is larger than the fractal dimension of typical tight oil reservoirs, indicating that the heterogeneity of shale oil reservoir is stronger. The research results have some theoretical and practical significance for the production of inter-salt shale oil reservoirs.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Fengwen Zhao ◽  
Jianhua Hu ◽  
Dongjie Yang ◽  
Ye Kuang ◽  
Hongxing Xiao ◽  
...  

To control pores in the backfill, the air-entraining agents (AEAs) are used as an admixture to realize the pore structure changes under artificial action and explore the effect of pore structure on strength. Two AEAs at different dosages were added to the backfill. The relationship was then analyzed between them from the macro- and mesoscopic aspects. The results indicate that AEA can regulate pore structure changes of AEACPB. With the increase in AEA content, the total pore volume of different pore sizes in AEACPB increases, in which the proportion of big and medium pore gradually increases while the proportion of small pore gradually decreases. The AEACPB’s UCS is linearly negatively correlated with the porosity and pore percentage, which is the primary factor affecting the AEACPB of the pore structure. When the total pores’ volume in the AEACPB is constant, the influence of different pore structures differs. A higher proportion of small pores leads to a linear increase in strength; a higher proportion of medium pores leads to a linear decrease in strength; and a higher proportion of big pores leads to an exponential decrease in strength. And the fractal dimension has a linear negative correlation with the UCS by fractal theory analysis.


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 298
Author(s):  
Chenlong Ding ◽  
Jinxian He ◽  
Hongchen Wu ◽  
Xiaoli Zhang

Ordos Basin is an important continental shale gas exploration site in China. The micropore structure of the shale reservoir is of great importance for shale gas evaluation. The Taiyuan Formation of the lower Permian is the main exploration interval for this area. To examine the nanometer pore structures in the Taiyuan Formation shale reservoirs in the Lin-Xing area, Northern Shaanxi, the microscopic pore structure characteristics were analyzed via nitrogen adsorption experiments. The pore structure parameters, such as specific surface area, pore volume, and aperture distribution, of shale were calculated; the significance of the pore structure for shale gas storage was analyzed; and the main controlling factors of pore development were assessed. The results indicated the surface area and hole volume of the shale sample to be 0.141–2.188 m2/g and 0.001398–0.008718 cm3/g, respectively. According to the IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) classification, mesopores and macropores were dominant in the pore structure, with the presence of a certain number of micropores. The adsorption curves were similar to the standard IV (a)-type isotherm line, and the hysteresis loop type was mainly similar to H3 and H4 types, indicating that most pores are dominated by open type pores, such as parallel plate-shaped pores and wedge-shaped slit pores. The micropores and mesopores provide the vast majority of the specific surface area, functioning as the main area for the adsorption of gas in the shale. The mesopores and macropores provide the vast majority of the pore volume, functioning as the main storage areas for the gas in the shale. Total organic carbon had no notable linear correlation with the total pore volume and the specific surface area. Vitrinite reflectance (Ro) had no notable correlation with the specific surface area, but did have a low “U” curve correlation with the total pore volume. There was no relationship between the quartz content and specific surface area and total pore volume. In addition, there was no notable correlation between the clay mineral content and total specific surface area and total pore volume.


2012 ◽  
Vol 174-177 ◽  
pp. 1010-1014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hong Bin Liu ◽  
Yang Ju ◽  
Kai Pei Tian ◽  
Jin Hui Liu ◽  
Li Wang ◽  
...  

The pore structure characteristics of reactive powder concrete (RPC) were investigated by means of the mercury injection method at seven temperature levels, namely, 20°C, 100°C, 150°C, 200°C, 250°C, 300°C, 350°C, respectively. The characteristic parameters such as porosity, pore volume, average pore size and threshold aperture varied with temperatures were analyzed. The results indicate that the porosity, pore volume, threshold aperture and other characteristic parameters of RPC increased with the temperature increasing.


Fractals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (07) ◽  
pp. 2050138
Author(s):  
QI ZHANG ◽  
XINYUE WU ◽  
QINGBANG MENG ◽  
YAN WANG ◽  
JIANCHAO CAI

Complicated gas–water transport behaviors in nanoporous shale media are known to be influenced by multiple transport mechanisms and pore structure characteristics. More accurate characterization of the fluid transport in shale reservoirs is essential to macroscale modeling for production prediction. This paper develops the analytical relative permeability models for gas–water two-phase in both organic and inorganic matter (OM and IM) of nanoporous shale using the fractal theory. Heterogeneous pore size distribution (PSD) of the shale media is considered instead of the tortuous capillaries with uniform diameters. The gas–water transport models for OM and IM are established, incorporating gas slippage described by second-order slip condition, water film thickness in IM, surface diffusion in OM, and the total organic carbon. Then, the presented model is validated by experimental results. After that, sensitivity analysis of gas–water transport behaviors based on pore structure properties of the shale sample is conducted, and the influence factors of fluid transport behaviors are discussed. The results show that the gas relative permeability is larger than 1 at the low pore pressure and water saturation. The larger pore pressure causes slight effect of gas slippage and surface diffusion on the gas relative permeability. The larger PSD fractal dimension of IM results in larger gas relative permeability and smaller water relative permeability. Besides, the large tortuosity fractal dimension will decrease the gas flux at the same water saturation, and the surface diffusion decreases with the increase of tortuosity fractal dimension of OM and pore pressure. The proposed models can provide an approach for macroscale modeling of the development of shale gas reservoirs.


Fractals ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (03) ◽  
pp. 1440010 ◽  
Author(s):  
LIEHUI ZHANG ◽  
JIANCHAO LI ◽  
HONGMING TANG ◽  
JINGJING GUO

The complex structure and surface property of porous media have significant impact on its accumulation and adsorption capacity. Based on the fractal theory, this paper presents a fractal pore structure model for shales. The effect of different pore structures on fractal dimension is discussed, and the influence of fractal dimension and pore size distribution on porosity is also analyzed. It is shown that the fractal dimension D decreases with the increase of structure parameter q/m for a certain pore diameter ratio, and porosity has positive relationship with fractal dimension. This paper also presents a multilayer fractal adsorption model which takes into account the roughness of adsorption surface by using fractal theory. With the introduction of pseudo-saturated vapor pressure in the supercritical temperature condition, the proposed adsorption model can be applied into a wider range of temperature. Based on the low-pressure nitrogen adsorption and methane isothermal adsorption experiments, the effect of fractal dimension on the adsorption behavior of shales is discussed. Fractal dimension has significant impact on the surface adsorption property and adsorption layer number n. The monolayer saturated adsorption volume Vm increases with the increase of D, while parameter C has the opposite variation trend. Finally, the optimal combination of fractal parameters for describing pore structure of shale samples is selected.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 152
Author(s):  
Shao-Heng He ◽  
Zhi Ding ◽  
Hai-Bo Hu ◽  
Min Gao

In this study, a series of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tests was conducted on calcareous sand, quartz sand, and glass bead with a wide range of grain sizes, to understand the effect of grain size on the micro-pore structure and fractal characteristics of the carbonate-based sand and silicate-based sand. The pore size distribution (PSD) of the tested materials were obtained from the NMR T2 spectra, and fractal theory was introduced to describe the fractal properties of PSD. Results demonstrate that grain size has a significant effect on the PSD of carbonate-based sand and silicate-based sand. As grain size increases, the PSD of sands evolves from a binary structure with two peaks to a ternary structure with three peaks. The increase in the grain size can cause a remarkable increase in the maximum pore size. It is also found that the more irregular the particle shape, the better the continuity between the large and medium pores. In addition, grain size has a considerable effect on the fractal dimension of the micro-pore structure. The increase of grain size can lead to a significant increase in the heterogeneity and fractal dimension in PSD for calcareous sand, quartz sand and glass bead.


2012 ◽  
Vol 204-208 ◽  
pp. 1923-1928
Author(s):  
Bo Tan ◽  
Rui Hua Yang ◽  
Yan Ting Lai

The paper presents the fractal dimension formula of distribution of asphalt mixture aggregate diameter by the deducing mass fractal characteristics function. Taking AC-20 and SMA-20 as examples, selected 6 groups of representative grading curves within the grading envelope proposed by the present specification, and calculated their fractal dimensions. The asphalt mixture gradation has fractal dimension D (D∈(1,3)), and the fractal of continuous gradation is single while the fractal of gap-gradation shows multi-fractal with 4.75 as the dividing point. Fractal dimension of aggregate gradation of asphalt mixture reflect the structure characteristics of aggregate distribution, that is, finer is aggregate, bigger is the fractal dimension.


Fractals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (04) ◽  
pp. 2050072 ◽  
Author(s):  
GUANNAN LIU ◽  
BOMING YU ◽  
DAYU YE ◽  
FENG GAO ◽  
JISHAN LIU

In the process of gas extraction, fracture-pore structure significantly influences the macroscopic permeability of coal seam. However, under the multi-field coupling, the mechanism of coal seam fracture-pore evolution remains to be clarified. In this paper, considering the effect of adsorption expansion, the fractal theory for porous media coupled with the multi-field model for coal seam is considered, and a multi-field coupling mechanical model is constructed by considering the influence of fracture-pore structure. Furthermore, the evolution mechanism of fractal dimension with physical and mechanical parameters of coal seam is studied. It is found that the fractal dimension for coal seam is inversely proportional to mining time and in situ stress, proportional to elastic modulus, Langmuir volume constant and Langmuir volume strain constant, and inversely proportional to Langmuir pressure constant. Compared with other factors, Langmuir pressure constant and Langmuir volume strain constant have the significance influence on the fractal dimension for the fracture length.


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