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Triaxial CU On Low Permeabiliti Shale
Triaxial CU On Low Permeabiliti Shale
ABSTRACT
As part of a study on drilling fluid-shale interactions, a consolidated undrained triaxial testing program
was conducted on the mechanical behaviour of low permeability shales. Novel techniques and rock
mechanics equipment for testing shales have been developed. The main testing techniques for conducting
a consolidated undrained triaxial test on the shales are as follows:
• Novel fibreglass sidedrains to accelerate the processes of back saturation and consolidation, and
equilibrium of pore pressure during undrained axial loading;
• Use of simulated pore fluid for sample preparation and saturation;
• Saturation and consolidation under an elevated back pressure;
• Slow axial strain rate to ensure pore pressure measurements made at the ends of the specimen to be
representative of the pore pressure inside the specimen.
C o p y r i g h t © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
KEYWORDS
L a b o r a t o r y Test • T r i a x i a l T e s t i n g • T e s t i n g M e t h o d s • S h a l e s • C o m p r e s s i v e S t r e n g t h •
Mechanical Properties • Intact Rock • Permeability • Deformation • Rock Properties
INTRODUCTION
Shales comprise most of the formations penetrated by oil and gas wells in hydrocarbon exploitation, and
instability in shale formations during drilling remains a major problem facing the oil and gas industry. As
a borehole is drilled, in situ stresses and pore pressure in its vicinity are redistributed and the support
previously provided by the excavated rock is partially replaced by drilling mud. If the redistributed
effective stresses exceed the load bearing capacity of the surrounding rock, whether it be due to
insufficient mud support or interactions between drilling mud and shale, the borehole failure may occur
either by:
• Hole size reduction due to large deformation and plastic flow of the rock into the borehole, without
the rock losing all of its strength; or
• Hole enlargement due to brittle failure.
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To cite this paper: Int. J. Rock Mech. & Min. Sci. 34:3-4, paper No. 336. Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
Such instabilities can lead to a number of problems such as complete or partial collapse of the well or
even loss of a well prior to reaching its target. The cost to overcome such instabilities can account for
over 10% of overall drilling cost (Steiger, Leung 1991 and Santarelli, Carminati 1995).
Traditionally, shale instability problems were managed to some extent by using oil based mud. However,
the move away from oil based mud due to environmental constraints has created a need for better
understanding of water based mud-shale interactions. As a result, a growing interest in rock mechanical
properties of shales has been observed in the last ten years (Swan et al. 1989 and Steiger, Leung 1991).
Triaxial tests have been widely used in determining rock and soil mechanical properties. The relevance
of consolidated undrained triaxial test results to borehole stability analyses has been well established
(Steiger, Leung 1991, and Aoki et al. 1995). However, determination of the mechanical properties of
shales is often complicated by the fact that the properties of these materials fall between those of rocks
and stiff or hard soils. Whilst their lithology is often similar to that of clay soils, their strength and
deformation characteristics may be more akin to those of rocks. Furthermore, shales often exhibit very
low permeability (microdarcy to nanodarcy range) and high porosity (e.g. 30%). This makes the standard
triaxial test facilities and procedures for rocks or soils unsuitable for shales, in terms of effective stress
concept.
As part of a study on drilling fluid-shale interactions, a research project was conducted on the mechanical
behaviour of low permeability shales. Aoki et al. 1995 described some aspects of a triaxial testing
system specially designed for conducting consolidated undrained triaxial tests on shales. This paper
describes the further developments to the system and emphasises on the techniques and procedures for
testing shales. Using the triaxial testing system, a large number of tests have been carried out on
synthetic, outcrop and downhole shales. The results of consolidated undrained triaxial tests on Pierre II
shale are presented and discussed.
TESTING EQUIPMENT
The triaxial testing system for shales is similar in principle to that used for testing hard rocks, with in-cell
instrumentation, and high stiffness and loading capacity, but without a hydraulic servo-control system. It
consists of a loading frame with a stepping motor pump driven actuator, cell and pore pressure control
systems and a system for temperature control.
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• Two diametrically positioned LVDTs clamped on the top and bottom platens to measure the sample
axial displacements;
• Two pairs of cantilevers, positioned orthogonally outside the membrane, to monitor sample diameter
change during testing;
• A load cell located on the top platen for the measurement of the axial deviator force applied onto the
specimen.
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1995).
Fibreglass Sidedrain
Sidedrain has been widely used in testing low permeability soils to expedite the redistribution of pore
pressure developed inside the sample and to shorten the testing duration. Filter paper is normally used as
the sidedrain material for soils. However, filter paper is ineffective at high effective confining pressure
(e.g. Leroueil 1988) and alternative sidedrain materials are needed for testing shales which may be
subjected to high effective confining pressures.
After a trial of a range of materials, thin fibreglass strands (diameter 0.017 ram) were selected for the
sidedrain. The material is very flexible, has very low shear strength and introduce a very small volume of
free pore fluid in addition to that in the pore pressure measurement system. The effectiveness of the
fibreglass strands as sidedrain material was evaluated by using an aluminium sample. The evaluation
procedure is as follows:
• Attach fibreglass strands in two orthogonal directions on the sample and ensure that they are in
contact with the grooves on the end surfaces of the top and bottom sample platens;
• Install the sample in the triaxial cell;
• Apply a pre-selected confining pressure;
• Apply a pore pressure of 5 MPa to top and bottom ends of the sample;
• Close the top pore pressure line;
• After the top pressure has stabilised, increase the bottom pore pressure to 9 MPa.
Top and bottom pore pressures and confining pressure are continuously monitored. This evaluation
procedure was repeated for a range of effective confining pressures which would be used for testing
shales. The variation of the time required to reach 50% and 75% equilibrium between top and bottom
pressures with effective confining pressure are presented in Figure 2.
It can be seen that the time to reach equilibrium increases with effective confining pressure, indicating
that the drainage capacity of the fibreglass sidedrain decreases with the pressure. However, the rate of the
decrease in drainage capacity slows down with the increase in effective confining pressure. At an
effective confining pressure of 27 MPa, the fibreglass sidedrain is still effective although the time
required to reach 50% and 75% of equilibrium increased by 5 and 10 times respectively in comparison
with the time required at an effective confining pressure of 5 MPa.
The test procedure described above was repeated on the aluminium sample with filter paper as sidedrain
material. The sample was covered in full length with four strips (each 10 mm wide) of Whatman No. 50
filter paper. It was observed that at an effective confining pressure of 5 MPa, a period of 10 hours was
required to reach 75% equilibrium between top and bottom pore pressures. No top pore pressure response
was observed after 16 hours at an effective confining pressure of 10 MPa, indicating that the filter paper
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To cite this paper: Int. J. Rock Mech. & Min. Sci. 34:3-4, paper No. 336. Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
Temperature Control
The effect of room temperature on experimental results of hard rock may not be significant because of
the short test duration. However, for a long term triaxial test on shale, change in room temperature during
the test can have significant effects in at least three aspects:
• Pore pressure measurement since temperature change can induce significant change in the
measurement in a rigidly confined, saturated pore pressure system (Aoki et al. 1995);
• Electronic instruments such as pressure transducers and LVDTs, as their offsets and calibration
factors may change as a result of temperature change;
• To a lesser extent, alteration of mechanical properties of the shale specimen.
With a triaxial test on shale lasting from a few days to a few weeks, the change in temperature can be
significant and may have considerable effects on the test results. Hence, a temperature control system
was developed for the shale testing system, which consists of a computer-controlled electrical heater
surrounding the specimen stack assembly inside the triaxial cell (see Figure 1), and a heater outside the
cell controlled by a temperature controller. The cell and the loading frame are well insulated and the
temperature control system is capable of maintaining a constant temperature within +0.25 ° C in a period
of a few weeks.
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TESTING PROCEDURES
Before commencing the consolidated undrained triaxial testing program on shales, the stability and
resolution of the transducers were checked using an aluminium sample under an elevated confining
pressure, axial stress, pore pressure and temperature. Special attention was paid to the pore pressure
measurement system as any leakage between cell and pore pressures, and pore pressure and atmosphere
during testing would invalidate the pore pressure measurements. After the required axial stress, confining
and pore pressures and temperature were established, the pore pressure measurement system was shut in
for an extended period of time, to observe any leakage in the pore pressure measurement system.
The testing procedure for a consolidated undrained triaxial test on shales includes sample installation,
back saturation, undrained hydrostatic loading, consolidation and undrained axial deviatoric loading.
Sample Installation
After installing fibreglass sidedrains, the sample was jacketed with a Viton membrane. The jacketed
sample and end platens were then installed onto the stack assembly within the triaxial cell. The stack
assembly incorporated the connections required between the pore pressure system and the end platens, an
internal load cell and instrumentations for measurement of radial and axial displacements of the
specimen, heating elements and thermocouples. It is important that the pore pressure system, including
the end platens, are fully saturated with the simulated pore fluid and no air was trapped inside the system.
After the triaxial cell was filled with hydraulic oil, the internal heating element and the external heater
were switched on.
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Isotropic Consolidation
Upon the stabilisation of the pore pressures induced during undrained isotropic loading, the back pore
pressure line was opened and controlled at 5 MPa to allow consolidation of the sample. The pore
pressure at the undrained end of the sample was monitored continuously. When the difference between
the pore pressure at the undrained end and back pressure is 2% of the back pressure, the consolidation
process was terminated by closing the back pore pressure valve.
E X A M P L E E X P E R I M E N T A L RESULTS
Using the test procedure and techniques specially developed in this study, a large number of consolidated
undrained triaxial tests were conducted on low permeability shales, including downhole and outcrop
shales. Reported below are some of the results of Pierre II shale. Some of its petrophysical properties are
summarised in Table 1. All the tests were conducted at a constant temperature of 35 ° C and a range of
effective confining pressures.
The Pierre II shale samples, cored perpendicular to the bedding plane, had nominal diameter of 25 mm
and length 50 mm. Sidedrains of 17 x 1 0 - 3 m m diameter fibreglass strands were installed on all the
samples.
It can be determined from Table 1 that the shale has quite a high degree of saturation in its natural state
and as a result, the time duration required for back saturation was quite short. The degree of saturation
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was further checked in the subsequent undrained hydrostatic loading. Figure 5 shows an example of the
pore pressure response to undrained hydrostatic loading. For this particular test, the confining pressure
was applied in four stages while the pore pressure lines were closed. Consistently high value of
approximately 0.95 for the pore pressure parameter B was obtained for all the stages which indicated that
the sample was saturated. A pore pressure parameter of essentially 1 will only be obtained for materials
with very large matrix compressibility (e.g. soils) in comparison with that of pore fluid (Aoki 1995).
Figure 6 shows a typical experimental result for an isotropic consolidation stage. The method which is
common to soil testing for determining theoretical 100% consolidation time (tloo) was adopted for the
shale. The material has a tlo o of approximately 6400 min. The axial strain rate with a 95% pore pressure
equilibrium was then estimated based on tlo o, taking into account the sidedrain configuration.
Typical stress-strain relationship and pore pressure response during the undrained axial deviatoric
loading are shown in Figure 7. The strain rate adopted for the test was 3 x lO-S/second. The suitability of
the strain rate was confirmed by comparing the pore pressure measurements at both ends of the sample,
and by monitoring the pore pressure changes while holding the axial stress and confining pressure
constant at the end of the test. A total of 6 consolidated undrained tests were conducted on this shale and
the peak strength data for the shale is given in Figure 8. It can be seen that the peak strength behaviour
can be adequately described using a linear Mohr-Coulomb strength criterion with a cohesion of 1.1 MPa
and angle of internal friction 14 ° .
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FIGURES
.j
i i
I I L
A: l.o~d cell
i ..... '! B B: T o p platen
Figure 1. Details of the sample stack assembly of the triaxial testing system for shales (modified from Aoki et al.
1995).
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To cite this paper: Int. J. Rock Mech. & Min. Sci. 34:3-4, paper No. 336. Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
I~¢.
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fibreglass sidedrain.
Fibreglass
II
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.... . . . . ...
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f
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To cite this paper: Int. J. Rock Mech. & Mm. Sci. 34:3-4, paper No. 336. Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
B ~,c.k- pru55U[%~
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To cite this paper: Int. J. Rock Mech. & Mm. Sci. 34:3-4, paper No. 336. Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
P a p e r 336, F i g u r e 6.
I." ~ -. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ':1
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Figure 7. Typical stress strain-relationship and pore pressure response during undrained deviatoric loading.
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To cite this paper: Int. J. Rock Mech. & Mm. Sci. 34:3-4, paper No. 336. Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
:,-.' ,
--i .::
TABLES
TABLE 1
P E T R O P H Y S I C A L P R O P E R T I E S OF P I E R R E II S H A L E
-.r
References
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ISSN 0148-9062
To cite this paper: Int. J. Rock Mech. & Min. Sci. 34:3-4, paper No. 336. Copyright © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd
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