Pore structure evolution of mudstone caprock under cyclic load-unload and its influence on breakthrough pressure

doi:10.1007/s11707-022-1019-9

Front. Earth Sci.

2023, Vol. 17

Issue (3) : 691-700 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11707-022-1019-9

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Pore structure evolution of mudstone caprock under cyclic load-unload and its influence on breakthrough pressure

Junchang SUN¹, Zhiqiang DONG², Sinan ZHU³, Shifeng TIAN², Junping ZHOU²(

)

¹. Bohai Rim Energy Research Institute, Northeast Petroleum University, Qinghuangdao 066004, China
². State Key Laboratory of Coal Mine Disaster Dynamics and Control, Chongqing University, Chongqing 400044, China
³. Sinopec Petroleum Exploration and Production Research Institute, Beijing 100083, China

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Abstract

The pore structure of caprock plays an important role in underground gas storage security, as it significantly influences the sealing capacity of caprock. However, the pore structure evolution of caprock with the cyclic stress perturbations triggered by the cyclic gas injection or extraction remains unclear. In this study, the pore structure changes of mudstone caprock under cyclic loading and unloading were obtained by the nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) tests system, then the influence of the changes on the breakthrough pressure of caprock was discussed. The results indicated that the pore structure changes are depending on the stress loading-unloading path and stress level. In the first cyclic, at the loading stage, with the increase of confining stress, the NMR T₂ spectra curve moved to the left, the NMR signal amplitude of the first peak increased, while the amplitude of the second peak decreased gradually. This indicated that the larger pores of mudstone are compressed and transformed into smaller pores, then the number of macropores decreased and the number of micro- and meso-pores increased. For a certain loading-unloading cycle, the porosity curve of mudstone in the loading process is not coincide with that in the unloading process, the porosity curve in the loading process was located below that in the unloading process, which indicated that the pore structure change is stress path dependent. With the increase of cycle numbers, the total porosity shown an increasing trend, indicating that the damage of mudstone occurred under the cyclic stress load-unload effects. With the increase of porosity, the breakthrough pressure of mudstone decreased with the increase of the cyclic numbers, which may increase the gas leakage risk. The results can provide significant implication for the underground gas storage security evaluation.

Keywords underground gas storage pore structure nuclear magnetic resonance cyclic loading-unloading breakthrough pressure

Corresponding Author(s): Junping ZHOU

Online First Date: 17 May 2023 Issue Date: 12 December 2023

Cite this article:

Junchang SUN,Zhiqiang DONG,Sinan ZHU, et al. Pore structure evolution of mudstone caprock under cyclic load-unload and its influence on breakthrough pressure[J]. Front. Earth Sci., 2023, 17(3): 691-700.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/10.1007/s11707-022-1019-9
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fesci/EN/Y2023/V17/I3/691

Tab.1 Mineral compositions, and initial porosity and permeability parameters of mudstone sample

Fig.1 The NMR measurement system.

Fig.2 Schematic of the experimental program (C_s = Confining stress).

Fig.3 T₂ spectra of mudstone under the first cyclic loading and unloading.

Fig.4 T₂ spectra of mudstone under different cycle numbers of loading and unloading.

Fig.5 T₂ spectra of mudstone under max confining stress with different cyclic numbers.

Tab.2 Variation of pore structure parameters of mudstone under cyclic loading-unloading

Fig.6 Variation of pore structure parameters in mudstone at multiple cyclic loading-unloading.

Fig.7 The relationship between relative breakthrough pressure and porosity (a) and permeability (b) of mudstone caprock.

Fig.8 Relationship between relative breakthrough pressure and confining stress and the cyclic loading numbers.

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