Hydrate growth in quartzitic sands and implication of pore fractal characteristics to hydraulic, mechanical, and electrical properties of hydrate-bearing sediments

Abstract

Gas hydrate pore habits significantly impact the pore-scale structure within hydrate-bearing sediments, and thus, play a central role in the physical property evolution. Characterization and quantification of the effective pore space within hydrate-bearing sediments at different hydrate saturations have not been well offered. This study performs random simulations of hydrate nucleation and growth in quartzitic sands to understand effects of hydrate saturation and hydrate pore habits on fractal characteristics of the effective pore space. Normalized pore-size fractal dimension and normalized maximal pore diameter are characterized and found to decrease with increasing hydrate saturation. In order to predict hydrate saturation dependent pore fractal characteristics, theoretical and empirical models are proposed and further extended to give implications to hydraulic, mechanical, and electrical properties of hydrate-bearing sediments during hydrate dissociation. Implications include that hydrate dissociation facilitates the absolute permeability and the electrical conductivity, and enhances first and then reduces the saturation exponent of Archie's law; hydrate dissociation also lowers the capillary pressure, and this promotes relative permeability to gas but inhibits relative permeability to water even the water saturation remains as a constant; shear strength of unsaturated hydrate-bearing sediments drops down due to the decreasing capillary pressure as hydrate dissociation. These implications all meet with conclusions in previous literatures.