Elastic properties of dry clay mineral aggregates, suspensions and sandstones

Abstract

The presence of clay minerals can alter the elastic behaviour of rocks significantly. Although clay minerals are common in sedimentary formations and seismic measurements are our main tools for studying subsurface lithologies, measurements of elastic properties of clay minerals have proven difficult. Theoretical values for the bulk modulus of clay are reported between 20 and 50 GPa. The only published experimental measurement of Young's modulus in a clay mineral using atomic force acoustic microscopy (AFAM) gave a much lower value of 6.2 GPa. This study has concentrated on using independent experimental methods to measure the elastic moduli of clay minerals as functions of pressure and saturation. First, ultrasonic P- and S-wave velocities were measured as functions of hydrostatic pressure in cold-pressed clay aggregates with porosity and grain density ranging from 4 to 43 per cent and 2.13 to 2.83 g cm - 3 , respectively. In the second experiment, P- and S-wave velocities in clay powders were measured under uniaxial stresses compaction. In the third experiment, P-wave velocity and attenuation in a kaolinite-water suspension with clay concentrations between 0 and 60 per cent were measured at ambient conditions. Our elastic moduli measurements of kaolinite, montmorillonite and smectite are consistent for all experiments and with reported AFAM measurements on a nanometre scale. The bulk modulus values of the solid clay phase (K s ) lie between 6 and 12 GPa and shear (μ s ) modulus values vary between 4 and 6 GPa. A comparison is made between the accuracy of velocity prediction in shaley sandstones and clay-water and clay-sand mixtures using the values measured in this study and those from theoretical models. Using K s = 12 GPa and μ s = 6 GPa from this study, the models give a much better prediction both of experimental velocity reduction due to increase in clay content in sandstones and velocity measurements in a kaolinite-water suspension.