© exten ys. Chem. Earth (A), Nol 25, No.2, pp. 163-168, 2000, (© 2000 Eleever Science Lid All rights reserved 1464-1895/00/5 sce Font mater Il: $1464-1895(00)00026-0 Effect of Stress on the Hydraulic Conductivity of Rock Pores S, Sisavath, X. D. Jing and R. W. Zimmerman T. H. Huxley School of Environment, Earth Sciences and Engineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London SW7 2BP, United Kingdom Received 23 April 1999; accepted 7 October 1999 Abstract: We have made a detailed study of the effect of cross-sectional shape on the hydraulic conductance of rock pores. We consider laminar flow through a single tube with an irregular cross-section; constriction effects, and interconnectedness of pores, will be studied in a future work. We employ three approximate methods: the hydraulic radius approximation, which attempts to correlate the conductivity with the perimeter/area ratio, the Aissen approximation, which utilises a mean value of the conductance of the largest (smallest) circles that can be inscribed (circumscribed) inside (outside) the pore, and the Saint-Venant approximation, which is based on the polar moment of inertia of the shape. The Boundary Element Method is used to provide nominally “exact” estimates of the conductivity, but at the expense of large amounts of computational time. All four methods have been tested on pore shapes from SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) images of thin-sections of Berea and Massilon sandstone. Surprisingly, the hydraulic radius approximation is the most accurate of the three approximate methods, giving, on average, less than 1% error. Finally, we combine these ‘methods with previous results on the effect of stress on pore deformation, to study the stress-dependence of pore conductivity © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd, All rights reserved. Introduction ‘The understanding of the permeability of porous rocks has ‘great importance in petroleum engineering, environmental ‘engineering, and various areas of geology. Permeability is to a great extent controlled by the geometry and interconnectedness of the pores. However, the structure of these pores is usually far too complex to be described by ‘mathematical formulze, and it is consequently difficult to ‘build a simple mode! for flow through porous media. Most, attempts to model the permeability of rocks resort to an Correspondence to: R. W. Zimmerman 63 oversimplification of the pore structure (e.g. the review by Bear, 1972), and only a few studies (e.g, Koplik et al, 1984; Schlueter et al, 1997) have attempted to account for the irregularities of the pore shapes. ‘The present study focuses on the effects of the cross- sectional imegularity of the pores on the hydraulic conductivity. ‘The constrictions and the interconnectedness usually found in rock pores are neglected for the time being, and will be addressed in future work. Thus, we consider laminar flow through a single pore idealised as @ tube with an irregular but constant cross-section, and we assess the performance of different approximate methods for estimating the hydraulic conductance. The Aissen (1951) and. Saint-Venant (1879) approximations, both originally proposed for the mathematically-analogous problem of torsion of an elastic rod, are compared to the predictions of the hydraulic-radius approximation (White, 1974). ‘The Boundary Element Method (BEM) is used to provide “exact” calculations of the hydraulic conductance. Each of these methods is first tested on simple shapes like squares, rectangles and triangles, for which the exact conductance is known. The approximate methods are then applied to real pore shapes from a SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) photomicrograph of a sample of Berea and Massilon sandstone. Finally, these methods are combined with previous results (Bemabe ef al, 1982; Seeburger and Nut, 1984; Zimmerman, 1991) on the deformation of pores, to allow an estimate of the effect of stress on the hydraulic conductivity 2 Governing equations and torsion analogy We assume that the pores have a constant cross section that cecupies a simply-connected region in the (3.9) plane, perpendicular to the z-axis and to the flow, with boundary &. For fully-developed laminar flow in the axial direction under a uniform pressure gradient, the Navier-Stokes equations and the conservation of mass equation for anvt 'Sisavath eral: Fsfect of Stes on the Hydraulic Conductivity of Rock Pores incompressible fluid reduce to the following Poisson equation (Berker, 1963) dp const i @ = constant, a where zis the co-ordinate along the axis of the tube, w, is the velocity of the fluid along the z-axis, p is the pressure, and ss the viscosity. The velocity must satisfy the no-slip boundary condition 4,20 @ along the boundary &. Equations (1-2) also govern the problem of torsion of an elastic bar. Although the relationship between the torsion problem and the viscous flow problem is conveniently called the “torsion analogy”, it is not a heuristic analogy, but rather an exact mathematical correspondence. Hence, many existing solutions, both exact and approximate, originally derived in the context of torsion can be used for cour viscous flow problem. In the problem of torsion of a prismatic elastic bar, one end of the bar is fixed in the xy-plane, while the other base is acted upon a couple whose moment is directed along the xis. This problem can be reduced to the solution of the following Poisson equation (Sokolnikoff, 1956) ey a?” ay in the region R defined by the eross-scetion, along with the boundary condition Play ~ constant ® ay 2 @ along the boundary GR. The function ¥ is the stress function from which the stress components are obtained by differentiation (Sokolnikoff, 1956). If the region R is simply-connected, the constant can be taken to be zero Hence, if ¥ is the solution of Eq. (3) for the boundary condition (4), in consideration of Eqs. (1-2) we can write (Berker, 1963) yu, - -L® oO de We can therefore express the total volumetric flux as_a funetion of an hydraulic conductance C (units: length*), (} defined by analogy with the electrical conductance (Schlueter, 1995): a fost © where the hydraulic conductance Cis given by see G afm om 3 Approximations for the hydraulic conductance The Poisson equation can be solved exactly only for relatively simple shapes such as circles, rectangles, etc (White, 1974), Consequently, much effort has been expended over the years to develop approximate expressions for the hydraulic conductivity, using simple geometrical atributes of the shape. In this section we review a few of these approximations and investigate their accuracy, 3.1 The hydraulic radius (HR) approximation ‘The volumetric flux through a circular tube of radius a is given exactly by the Hagen-Poiseuille equation (Berker, 1963) na‘ dp a 8 Bu de ® If we define the hydraulic radius as Ry = A/P, then we can express the hydraulic conductance ofa circular tube as ma = 9) 5 o where 4 is the cross-sectional area and P is the perimeter. Equation (9) is exact for a circular cross-section, by construction, The HR approximation consists then of using Eq. (9) 10 estimate the hydraulic conductance of non- circular tubes, 3.2 The Saint-Venant (SV) approximation Saint-Venant (1879) proposed an approximation for the torsional rigidity that involved the polar moment of inertia J of the cross-section, taken about the centroid, The torsion analogy then leads to the following approximation for the hydraulic conductance a ors Locating the centroid and calculating the polar moment about the centroid is non-trivial for complex geometries. Steger (1996) used Green’s theorem to devise a method to calculate the area and the moments of arbitrary order from a polygon using only the points describing the boundary of the polygon. Any pore shape can be approximated by a polygon having a sufficient number of sides, so his findings allow the SV approximation to be applied to rock pores. (10) 3.3 The Aissen approximation Also in the context of the torsion problem, Aissen (1951), based on geometrical considerations, derived a formula for the torsional rigidity that enables us to approximate the hydraulic conductance as fa : ay where 5 and 4 denote, respectively, the diameter of the largest inscribed circle and the smallest circumscribed circle of the domain R. Since the largest inscribed circle is tangent to at leastSSisavath eral: Effect of Stress on the Hydraulic Conductivity of Rock Pores us three sides of the polygon, it is trivial to locate its centre and determine its diameter, & To find the smallest circumscribed circle, we have written a program based on the theorem of Papadopoulos (1998): the minimum- circumscribed circle of a polygon is either (a) one of the circles drawn with a diameter equal to a line segment joining any two vertices, or (b) one of the circumscribed circles of all the triangles generated from every three vertices. 3.4 Comparison of the methods for simple shapes In Table 1, the performance of the approximate methods is assessed and compared for simple shapes whose exact conductances have been analytically calculated (Berker, 1963; White, 1974). The Assen and the SV approximations are generally more accurate than the hydraulic radius approximation; for elliptical cross-sections, they are exact, by construction. The HR. approximation ‘works very poorly for an elongated rectangle (or elongated ellipse), with 50% error in the limiting case of a thin slit. “Table L. Accuracy ofthe approximate methods for pore of simple shapes, 8 compared tothe exact analytical results, “Spe HR 'SV_Aisen ae RO Semi-ircle mM Om Square 1% Bm Equilstera wiangle “1% 10% Ellipse, a= 0.01, 2H OOH Rectangular sit, /a= 0.01 4% Rectangular thin slit, Bla 50% 9% 4“Exact” calculation of the hydraulic conductance In order to judge the applicability of the approximate ‘methods to real pore shapes, we have utilised the boundary element method (BEM). The BEM. is particularly convenient for imegular shapes, as it does not require discretisation of R into polygons, as do finite element or finite difference methods. In the BEM, the boundary &R of the pore cross-section is approximated by a sequence of straight lines that join together discrete points on &R. In order to implement the BEM, we used the program Betis developed by Paris and Cafas (1997). This program allows the calculation of the stress function at any point side the region R. However, it does not perform the integration specified in Eq, (7) that is required in order to find C. If the domain were of a simple shape, R could be discretised, and the integration carried out using standard ‘methods. However, this approach is unsuited for irregular cross-sections. Instead, we use a Monte Carlo method Gipson, 1987) in which we first generate a sequence of Nx randomly-located internal points (xj,y,), and. then approximate integral in Eq, (7) as a , We have tested our boundary-clement method by applying it to simple geometric shapes with known conductivities. The BEM calculations were carried out with N= 1500 random points, and 20 boundary elements per polygonal “side”. The method achieved an error of only 0.19% for a square, 0.03% for an equilateral triangle, and -0.57% for a 3:1 rectangle; we interpret these results as validating our calculation procedure. For shapes with rounded edges, such as ellipses, the magnitude of the error ‘was usually in the range of 1-2%. 5 Application to Berea and Massilon sandstone We now apply the approximate methods previously described - the HR, SV and Aissen approximations - to real ppore shapes taken from the SEM photomicrographs of Berea and Massilon sandstones, taken from Schlueter ef al (1997) and Koplik et al. (1984), respectively. Berea sandstone is known to be a more regular, homogeneous rock, as can be seen in Fig. 1. The errors in the approximate methods are calculated by assuming that the BEM gives the “exact” result, bearing in mind that the BEM may itself be in error by as much as 2%. Table 2 shows the mean error ¢ and the standard deviation o induced by the three approximate methods ‘when applied to all the pores of the two samples shown in Fig. 1. The mean error is obtained by equally-weighting each pore, and the standard deviation of the individual errors is also calculated. The Aissen and SV approximations do not have the accuracy that would have been expected, based on their performance for regular ‘Table 2. Performance ofthe approximate methods on real pore shapes a compared tthe BEM ll values ein percentages. Sandstone TR sv ‘Aiasen “Berea = 04 oF 1953 e= 219 Massilon166 SSisavath eral: Ffect of Stes onthe Hydraulic Conductivity of Rock Pores shapes. In the case of Berea sandstone, the HR approximation gives excellent results, with a mean error of only 0.4% and a standard deviation of 7.1%, One should also note that the error is less than 10% for 29 out of 34 pores in the sample. In the case of Massilon sandstone, the HR approximation induces a larger mean error:~14.4%. This may be explained by the “thin edges” present on most Massilon sandstone pores, which are regions that carry little flow. As the presence of these thin edges substantially increases the perimeter of the pores without greatly affecting either the conductance or the cross-sectional area, the perimeter that actually affects the flow will be overestimated and, hence, the HR approximation will underestimate the conductance. 6 Effects of stress or pore pressure In this section, we investigate the dependence of the hydraulic conductivity on the deformation of the pores due to applied stresses or pore pressures. The study is carried ‘out on thin cracks of elliptical and tapered cross-sections, for which the deformation has been calculated. by, respectively, Bernabe ef al. (1982) and Mavko and Nur (1978). The deformation of thin cracks is simpler to discuss, since only for “thin” cracks does pore pressure have precisely an equal but opposite effect as does confining pressure (Zimmerman, 1992), the latter being defined as the hydrostatic pressure applied at infinity (Mavko and Nur, 1978) 6.1 Elliptic cracks Bernabe er al, (1982) studied the behaviour of the permeability of hot-pressed calcite and various crystalline rocks with increasing confining pressure 7... For a pore of elliptical cross-section, the analytical solution for the hydraulic conductance is given exactly by (White, 1974): ab? — 13) 4a se) © where @ and 6 are, respectively, the major and minor axes, Of the ellipse, The deformation due to a change in the confining pressure is described by (Bernabe er al, 1982) ct ites dea yee Satowa(tey" sdona( 2" an beeyP 1 (agg line (2) -3-@ #3) as) where @ 1 /ay <1 is the initial aspect ratio of the elliptic pore under conditions of no applied stress, ay and by are respectively the initial major and minor axes of the ellipse, and p.* is the confining pressure at which the pore is entirely closed. The results obtained with the HR approximation for these elliptic cracks are compared to the exact value (13) in Fig. 2, The HR approximation leads to ‘an overestimation of 23.4% for elongated ellipses. No Fig. 2. Decrease ofthe conductance with the confining pressure for an elliptic crack of initial aspect ratio a ~ 0.01 and initial conductance C ‘The “enact” condoctance is calculated wsing eq. (13) coupled with the deformation mode proposed by Bernabe eral (1982) pelo tm entciCo 100 049 02 008 002 Fig. 3. Deformation ofa tapered crack, calculated after Mavko and Nur (1973), with increasing confining pressure. The crack closes completely at Be= 15p2" Cae and Cy (the Inia conductance) are calculated using Fa). significant change in the accuracy of the HR approximation is seen with the increase of the pressure. The SV and ‘Aissen approximations need not be assessed, since, as mentioned above, they are exact for ellipses. 6.2 Tapered cracks Seeburger and Nur (1984) developed a network model in Which the pores are considered as straight tubes with tapered cross-section (See Fig. 3). Letting Ax) be the vertical position at the point x, the equation for a tapered crack of initial length ap, as a function of the confining pressure, is (Mavko and Nur, 1978) nay=Z(@ =)", (6) a where a? = a(t -(2p¢/3pe*)] and avis the initial aspect ratio (heightength). The parameter p.* is the confining pressure at which an elliptic crack with the same initial aspect ratio would close, and is given by (Bernabe ef a 1982) pet =aGi(l-v), an where G is the shear modulus and v is the Poisson ratio, The pressure required to close a tapered crack is found by setting M(0) =0, £e. the crack closes at p. = 1.5p.*os Pett 1s Fig. 4. Decrease ofthe conductance withthe confining pressure for @ tapered crack of inal sepect ratio = 0.01 and intial conductance Ce calculated using the cubic law. The cack closes at p= 1.5p.*, although C hs dropped io less than 01, when p.= L.0p.* ‘Taking an equivalent ellipse which possesses the same area and the same width, Seeburger and Nur (1984) proposed the following approximation for a tapered crack: 3/4) aa Gin"a°ai |, fat sia The Seeburger and Nur (S&N) approximation was found to be within 2% of the value calculated by the BEM for a = 0.1 and zero confining pressure. No calculation could be made using the BEM for aspect ratio less than a = 0.1, since the program Betis becomes inaccurate for points that are very close to the boundary (Paris and Cafas, 1997). However, the present tapered shape actually lends itself to the “cubic law” that is used to model rock fractures (Bear, 1972; Zimmerman and Bodvarsson, 1996) which is exact for elongated rectangles and ellipses. The cubic law yields the following expression for the conductance of tapered crack of length 2a: xref 2p] rer ic esl a) (18) ede and the evolution of Cai 88 @ function of the deformation described by Eq. (16) is shown in Fig. 3. For extremely small values of a, it should be noted that Eq. (18) gives an estimation of the conductance 14% higher than Eq. (19). In Fig. 4, the conductances calculated using the cubic law ‘are compared to the S&:N approximation, and to the three approximations studied in the previous sections. All ofthe approximations display the same trends, and no substantial change of their accuracy with the effects of confining pressure is noticeable. For p.~0.2p.*, the deformation due to applied stress leads to a loss of almost 50% of the initial hydraulic conductance. ‘The results for a thin slit (Table 1) ‘and for an elongated ellipse (Fig. 2) tend to show that the HR approximation overestimates the conductance for clongated shapes. However, in the case of a tapered crack, the HR approximation underestimates the hydraulic conductance (Fig. 4), and this may be explained by the thin “edges” of this type of crack. Furthermore, as found by Effet of Stress on the Hydraulie Conductivity of Rock Pores 161 Srl Bne Capullentht ree) a8 emparelo e BEM ‘Seven Alte 00D a7 42 aL M6 B20 Ni4s6 7999 Fig. §. Compresiility and hydraulic conductance of @ fourside hypotrchoidal pore Seeburger and Nur (1984), there is virtually no difference between elliptic (Fig. 2) and tapered cracks (Fig. 4) in the loss of conductivity with increasing confining pressure. 6.3 Hypotrochoidal pores ‘One parameter of interest is also the pore compressibility Ars which relates the change in pore volume to the ‘confining pressure. Zimmerman (1991) used hypotrochoids as.a simplified model for the compressibility changes due to diagenetic alteration of a sandstone, The mapping function from the unit disk into the outside of the hypotrochoidal contour zagQ)agt+me", eo) Where m is a positive integer and 0 < m < lin, For a hypotrochoid, the pore compressibility By is given by (Mavko, 1980) 2 Bye _ Ven Bo 1=nm where f,°, the pore compressibility of a circular hole, is given by #2, =20-v)IG @) ‘The variations of the compressibility and of the conductances calculated using the different methods studied previously are displayed in Fig. 5 for n = 3. A hypotrochoid of exponent has +1 comers, which become ‘more acute as m increases; it rounds off into a circle when m-90. From m=0 to m=1/3, the compressibility fy. doubles, whereas the conductivity decreases by a factor of three. In contrast to the two cracks previously studied, the error induced by the HR approximation varies notably with the deformation of the hypotrochoid. This is due to the change of the shape of the pore. In the case m= 1/3, the error is rather large and, as for Massilon sandstone pores (Sect. 5), this is also explained by the thin edges which do not contribute to the flow and which lead to an underestimation of the conductance. en168 S Sisavath eal: Effect of Sess om the Hydraulic Conductivity of Rock Pores 7 Conclusions Different methods have been used to estimate the hydraulic conductance for laminar flow through an irregularly-shaped tubular pore. The Aissen and the Saint-Venant approximations, both of which originated from the torsion problem, and which are exact for any elliptical cross- section, show very good results for simple shapes like ‘squares or triangles, but are not as accurate when applied to real pore shapes. In contrast, the hydraulic radius approximation gives very poor results for some simple shapes, such as elongated rectangles, but unexpectedly displays very good performance for real pore shapes studied, particulary for Berea sandstone. Previous analyses of the effects of applied pressure on pore shape enable us to estimate the decrease of the hydraulic conductance due to pore deformation for thin elliptic and tapered cracks. The SV and Aissen approximations appear to be quite accurate tools for elliptic ‘racks, and the consistency’ of the results obtained with the HER approximation (no change of scale in the error induced) is also encouraging. In the long nun, these results may be used to model the dependence of permeability on confining pressure, which could be compared to experimental results such as those of Kilmer et af, (1987), The results obtained for hypotrochoidal contours may also be useful for a better understanding of the behaviour of star-shaped or grain boundary pore (GBP) shaped pores, widely used to model sedimentary rocks, The loss of accuracy of the HR approximation when the hypotrochoid becomes “sharper” is also a confirmation of the results obtained with Massilon sandstone, ‘The constrictions present along the pore length have not been considered in this study, and will be the object of future work, as will be the issue of assembling the pores into a network and estimating the permeability on a macroscopic (rock core) scale (of, Koplik et al, 1984; Doyen, 1988). References ‘Assen, ML. 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