Geomechaical Behavior of Shale Rocks Under High Pressure and Temperature

The mechanical properties of shale are demanding parameters for a number of engineering and geomechanical purposes. Borehole stability modeling, geophysics, shale oil and shale gas reservoirs, and underground storage of CO2 in shale formations are some of these potential applications to name a few. The growing interest in these reservoirs, as a source for hydrocarbons production, has resulted in an increasing demand for fundamental rock property data.

These rocks are known to be non-linear materials. There are many factors, including induced cracks and their orientation, partial saturation, material heterogeneity and anisotropy, plasticity, strain rate, and temperature that may have an impact on the geomechanical behaviour of these shales.Experimental results and theoretical considerations have shown that the elastic moduli are not single-value, well-defined parameters for a given rock. Finding suitable values for these parameters is of vital importance in many geomechanical applications.

In this study, shale heterogeneity and its geomechanical properties are explored through an extensive laboratory experimental program. A series of hydrostatic and triaxial tests were performed in order to evaluate the elasticity, viscoplasticity, yielding and failure response of Marcellus shale samples as a function of pressure and temperature. Additional characterization includes mineralogy, porosity, and permeability measurements. The shale samples were taken from a Marcellus outcrop at State Game Lands 252, located in Lycoming and Union counties, Allenwood, Pennsylvania. Laboratory experiments have shown that creep behaviour is highly sensitive to temperature. Furthermore, the non-linear nature of these rocks reveals interesting behaviour of the elastic moduli highly dependent on stress history of the rock. Results from cyclic triaxial tests point out the different behaviour between 1^st-loading and unloading-reloading cycles. Experimental results of these Marcellus shales are compared with other shales from different plays in the United States.