Micro-mechanical properties of shale due to water/supercritical carbon dioxide-rock interaction

To investigate the impacts of water/supercritical CO_(2)-rock interaction on the micro-mechanical properties of shale,a series of high-temperature and high-pressure immersion experiments were performed on the calcareous laminated shale samples mined from the lower submember of the third member of Paleogene Shahejie Formation in the Jiyang Depression,Bohai Bay Basin.After that,grid nanoindentation tests were conducted to analyze the influence of immersion time,pressure,and temperature on micro-mechanical parameters.Experimental results show that the damage of shale caused by the water/supercritical CO_(2)-rock interaction was mainly featured by the generation of induced fractures in the clay-rich laminae.In the case of soaking with supercritical CO_(2),the aperture of induced fracture was smaller.Due to the existence of induced fractures,the statistical averages of elastic modulus and hardness both decreased.Meanwhile,compaction and stress-induced tensile fractures could be observed around the laminae.Generally,the longer the soaking time,the higher the soaking pressure and temperature,the more significant the degradation of micro-mechanical parameters is.Compared with water-rock interaction,the supercritical CO_(2)-rock interaction caused a lower degree of mechanical damage on the shale surface.Thus,supercritical CO_(2)can be used as a fracturing fluid to prevent the surface softening of induced fractures in shale reservoirs.

DEM investigation of macro-and micro-mechanical properties of rigid-grain and soft-chip mixtures

We investigated the macro-and micro-mechanical properties of rigid-grain and soft-chip mixtures(GCMs)through numerical simulations using the discrete element method.We present a novel framework for the discrete modeling of soft chips and rigid grains in conjunction with calibration processes.Several numerical triaxial tests were also performed on GCMs with 0%,10%,20%,and 30%volumetric chip contents,P.The simulation results demonstrate that increasing P leads to higher GCM toughness,higher deviatoric peak stress,and higher corresponding shear strain.Higher P also contributes to more volume contraction and less dilation.The friction angles at both the peak and residual state significantly increase with increasing P.In view of the micro-mechanical features,strong contact force chains develop along the loading direction,which results in considerable anisotropy in the peak and residual states.Both the formation of strong force chains and rotation of grains decrease with increasing P,whereas the grain sliding percentage increases.The tensile force is mobilized with shearing and higher P leads to less mobilization of the tensile force.These findings are useful for better understanding the internal structure of GCMs with different soft-chip contents,especially in granular mixture mechanics and geomechanics.

Influence Mechanism of Curing Regimes on Interfacial Transition Zone of Lightweight Ultra-High Performance Concrete

This study aims to clarify the effects of curing regimes and lightweight aggregate(LWA)on the morphology, width and mechanical properties of the interfacial transition zone(ITZ) of ultra-high performance concrete(UHPC), and provide reference for the selection of lightweight ultra-high performance concrete(L-UHPC) curing regimes and the pre-wetting degree LWA. The results show that, under the three curing regimes(standard curing, steam curing and autoclaved curing), LWA is tightly bound to the matrix without obvious boundaries. ITZ width increases with the water absorption of LWA and decreases with increasing curing temperature. The ITZ microhardness is the highest when water absorption is 3%, and the microhardness value is more stable with the distance from LWA. Steam and autoclaved curing increase ITZ microhardness compared to standard curing. As LWA pre-wetting and curing temperatures increase, the degree of hydration at the ITZ increases, generating high-density CSH(HD CSH) and ultra-high-density CSH(UHD CSH), and reducing unhydrated particles in ITZ. ITZ micro-mechanical properties are optimized due to hydration products being denser.