The depressurization of natural hydrate deposits to produce methane gas can increase the effective stress in hydrate-bearing sediments, which may induce sand particle crushing. Sand crushing may become detrimental to gas production, because the breakage of sand particles can cause sediment contraction, reduction in permeability, and the generation of finer particles exacerbating solids migration and sand production. This study experimentally investigates particle crushing in tetrahydrofuran hydrate-bearing sands. Sandy specimens with various hydrate saturation are loaded to different stresses (up to 40 MPa) in an instrumented oedometer cell to induce sand crushing. The results show that the presence of hydrate crystals inhibits sand particle crushing. More pronounced sand crushing occurs in specimens with lower hydrate saturation and under higher maximum effective stress. Hydrate crystals can cement neighboring sand particles and constrain the particles from rotating and rearranging during loading. Relatively larger particles in hydrate-bearing sediments experience surface grinding with no significant decreases in particle sizes, and shear-off asperities of the larger particles contribute to an increase in the proportion of smaller particles. The total volumetric strain in hydrate-bearing sediments due to loading can be estimated using the known hydrate saturation and the volumetric strain of hydrate-free sediments subjected to an identical load. The changes in hydraulic conductivity due to sand particle crushing are correlated to the breakage index. The results highlight that gas production from hydrate deposits using depressurization increases the effective stress and the loss of hydrate crystals can exacerbate sand crushing.

天然水合物沉积物的降压产生甲烷气体会增加含水合物沉积物中的有效应力，这可能会导致砂粒破碎。沙粒破碎可能会对气体产生有害，因为沙粒的破裂会导致沉积物收缩，渗透率降低以及产生更细的颗粒，从而加剧固体迁移和产沙。这项研究实验研究了在四氢呋喃水合物砂中的颗粒破碎。具有不同水合物饱和度的沙质样品在仪器化的测压计单元中加载到不同的应力下（最高40 MPa），以引起沙粒破碎。结果表明，水合物晶体的存在抑制了砂粒的破碎。在水合物饱和度较低且最大有效应力较高的样品中，更明显的沙粒破碎现象。水合物晶体可以使邻近的沙粒粘连起来，并限制沙粒在加载过程中旋转和重新排列。含水合物沉积物中相对较大的颗粒经过表面研磨后粒径没有明显减小，并且较大颗粒的剪切不平度有助于较小颗粒的比例增加。可以使用已知的水合物饱和度和负载相同的无水合物沉积物的体积应变来估算由于加载而导致的含水合物沉积物的总体积应变。由于砂粒破碎而引起的水力传导率的变化与破坏指数相关。