A Geomechanical Model for Gas Hydrate Bearing Sediments Incorporating High Dilatancy, Temperature, and Rate Effects

• Published in: Energies
• Main Authors: Zhou, Bohan, Sanchez, Marcelo, Oldecop, Luciano, Santamarina, Carlos
• Other Authors: Energy Resources and Petroleum Engineering Program, Ali I. Al-Naimi Petroleum Engineering Research Center (ANPERC), Physical Science and Engineering (PSE) Division, Earth Science and Engineering Program, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Texas A&M University, 3136 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843, USA, PowerChina Huadong Engineering Corporation Limited, Hangzhou 311122, China, Instituto de Investigaciones Antisísmicas “Ing. Aldo Bruschi”, Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad Nacional de San Juan, San Juan 5402, Argentina
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: unknown
• Published: MDPI AG 2022
• Subjects: Methane hydrate
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10754/678894; https://doi.org/10.3390/en15124280

The geomechanical behavior of methane hydrate bearing sediments (MHBS) is influenced by many factors, including temperature, fluid pressure, hydrate saturation, stress level, and strain rate. The paper presents a visco-elastoplastic constitutive model for MHBS based on an elastoplastic model that incorporates the effect of hydrate saturation, stress history, and hydrate morphology on hydrate sediment response. The upgraded model is able to account for additional critical features of MHBS behavior, such as, high-dilatancy, temperature, and rate effects. The main components and the mathematical formulation of the new constitutive model are described in detail. The upgraded model is validated using published triaxial tests involving MHBS. The model agrees overly well with the experimental observations and is able to capture the main features associated with the behavior of MHBS. We acknowledge the financial support from NETL (National Energy Technology Laboratory, DOE, USA, through Award No.: DE-FE0013889. The authors thank Xuerui Gai for technical assistance and useful discussion.