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Spring 2019
Solutions
You may find the following article useful for your understanding and further reading:
Sone, H., & Zoback, M. D. (2013). Mechanical properties of shale-gas reservoir rocks—Part 2:
Ductile creep, brittle strength, and their relation to the elastic modulus. Geophysics, 78(5), D393-
D402.
a. How are power law parameters B and n expected to vary with clay + kerogen content and
sample orientation?
B and n are expected to increase as clay + kerogen content increases. B represents elastic
compliance. Hence, a greater proportion of clay and kerogen in the rock frame results in
lower stiffness (greater compliance). n determines the time-dependent strain response to
application of a constant stress (creep). Since rocks with higher clay + kerogen content are
observed to creep more, n is also expected to increase with clay + kerogen content.
Unconventional reservoir rocks show greater elastic compliance and creep when
differential stress is applied perpendicular to bedding. Thus, vertical samples (horizontal
bedding plane) are expected to have higher B and n values than horizontal samples (vertical
bedding plane).
b. Sone & Zoback (2014) studied creep deformation in a wide range of lithologies. The sample
compositions and the experimental results are given below:
Figure 1
Consider the following samples: Barnett-2, Haynesville-1 and Eagle Ford-1 (only vertical
samples). Using the lower limits of B and n values provided in Table 1, calculate the amount of
creep strain, ε(t), that would occur due to the application of 30 MPa differential stress over
timescales of 1 year, 105 years and 108 years. Construct a table of the results and/or a scatter plot
of the creep strain as a function of time with the points colored based on the clay + kerogen content.
Note: Use the ternary diagram (Fig. 1) to read the clay + kerogen content for each sample. Use
units of seconds for time in all calculations.
Strain
-5 -1
Sample Clay + kerogen (wt%) B (10 MPa ) n t = 1 yr t = 105 yr t = 108 yr
Barnett-2 8 1.2 0.011 0.00044 0.00049 0.00053
Haynesville-1 47 3.7 0.023 0.00165 0.00215 0.00252
Eagle Ford-1 30 2.6 0.028 0.00126 0.00175 0.00212
c. Is there any correlation between the amount of creep strain and the clay + kerogen content?
Yes, rocks with higher clay + kerogen generally exhibit more creep strain.
d. Re-arrange the Eqn. 1 to obtain the expression below for the creep compliance function
J(t). Plot log J(t) vs. log t for each sample. Show how the values of B and n are obtained
from this plot.
Plotting log J(t) vs. log t results in a linear relationship for each sample. The slope of the
line is n and the y-intercept is log B.
Sample y-intercept B = 10^y-intercept (10-5 MPa-1) n = slope
Barnett-2 -4.9208 1.2 0.011
Haynesville-1 -4.4318 3.7 0.023
Eagle Ford-1 -4.585 2.6 0.028
e. For each sample, calculate the accumulated differential stress, σ (t) for a constant strain
rate of ε! = 10-19 s-1 over a period of 150 million years using the following relationship:
1
σ (t) = ε! t 1−n (3)
B(1− n)
See Lagunita for answers to numerical entry and multiple choice questions