Elastic and inelastic deformation of fluid-saturated rock

Abstract

In situ rock is often saturated with fluid, the presence of which affects both elastic parameters and inelastic deformation processes. Techniques were developed for testing fluid-saturated porous rock under the limiting conditions of drained (long-term), undrained (short-term) and unjacketed (solid matrix) response in hydrostatic, axisymmetric and plane-strain compression. Drained and undrained poroelastic parameters, including bulk modulus, Biot and Skempton coefficients, of Berea sandstone were found to be stress dependent up to 35 MPa mean stress, and approximately constant at higher levels of loading. The unjacketed bulk modulus was measured to be constant for pressure up to 60 MPa, and it appears to be larger than the unjacketed pore bulk modulus. An elasto-plastic constitutive model calibrated with parameters from drained tests provided a first-order approximation of undrained inelastic deformation: dilatant hardening was observed due to pore pressure decrease during inelastic deformation of rock specimens with constant fluid content. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Energy and the subsurface’.