Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Permeability Evolution Characteristics of Intact and Fractured Shale Specimens

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The permeability of shale reservoirs is an important parameter in evaluating the feasibility of shale gas commercial exploitation. The influence of structural anisotropy, bedding planes, and effective stress is of great significance to the permeability of shale reservoirs; thus, a further study on the permeability of shale rock containing bedding planes and fractures is necessary. In this paper, to investigate the gas conductivity of shale rock in different bedding directions and fracture surfaces, permeability tests were conducted on the intact specimens with different bedding inclinations and specimens containing fractures of Longmaxi shale. The pulse decay method is adopted in the determination of the intact shale specimen, and the steady-state method is adopted to measure the permeability of fractured shale specimen. Combined with experiments and theoretical analysis, the anisotropic characteristics of the permeability of intact shale specimens and the permeability of fractured specimens under the applying of effective stress are studied. The permeability of the two kinds of shale specimens decreased exponentially with the increase in effective stress. The main controlling factors on permeability were studied, besides, the flow characteristic of fluid inside the rock with bedding plane or sandwich structures were described. Furthermore, a new model was proposed to describe the anisotropy of rock permeability characteristics. As for shale specimen contains fracture, the function between its equivalent permeability and fracture permeability was derived, as well as the function between equivalent permeability and effective stress, and the function between fracture permeability and effective stress.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Al-Tabbaa A, Wood DM (1987) Some measurements of the permeability of kaolin. Géotechnique 38(1):163–163

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bhandari AR, Flemings PB, Polito PJ, Cronin MB, Bryant SL (2015) Anisotropy and stress dependence of permeability in the Barnett shale. Transp Porous Media 108(2):393–411

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Brace WF, Walsh JB, Frangos WT (1968) Permeability of granite under high pressure. J Geophs Res 73(6):2225

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen D, Pan Z, Ye Z (2015) Dependence of gas shale fracture permeability on effective stress and reservoir pressure: model match and insights. Fuel 139:383–392

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davies DK, Bryant WR, Vessell RK, Burkett PJ (1991) Porosities, permeabilities, and microfabrics of devonian shales microstructure of fine-grained sediments. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Dicker A I, Smits R M (1998) A practical approach for determining permeability from laboratory pressure-pulse decay measurements. The SPE International Meeting on Petroleum Engineering. Tianjin: [s. n.]

  • Gangi AF (1978) Variation of whole and fractured porous rock permeability with confining pressure. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci Geomech Abstr 15(5):249–257

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghabezloo S, Sulem J, Guédon S et al (2009) Effective stress law for the permeability of a limestone. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 46(2):297–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghanizadeh A, Gasparik M, Amann-Hildenbrand A, Gensterblum Y, Krooss BM (2014) Experimental study of fluid transport processes in the matrix system of the European organic-rich shales: I. Scandinavian alum shale. Mar Pet Geol 51(Complete):79–99

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guidry F K, Luffel D L, Curtis J B (1996) Development of Laboratory and Petrophysical Techniques for Evaluating Shale Reservoirs. GRI Final Techncial Report GRI-95/0496

  • Jones FO, Owens WW (1980) A laboratory study of low-permeability gas sands. J Petrol Technol 32(9):1631–1640

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klinkenberg LJ (1941) The permeability of porous media to liquid and gases. API Drill Prod Pract 41:200–213

    Google Scholar 

  • Kwon O, Kroneberg AK, Gangi AF, Johnson B (2001) Permeability of Wilcox shale and its effective pressure law. J Geophys Res 106:19339–19353

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kwon O, Kroneberg A K, Gangi A F, Johnson B, Herbert B (2004) Permeability of illite-bearing shale: anisotropy and effects of clay content and loading. J Geophys Res Solid Earth 109:B10205

  • Li SP, Wu DX, Xie WH, Li YS, Wu ZY, Zhou G et al (1997) Effect of confining presure, pore pressure and specimen dimension on permeability of Yinzhuang sandstone. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci Geomech Abstr 34(3–4):432–432

    Google Scholar 

  • Li S L, Dong M Z, Dai L M, Li Z W, Pan X F (2004) Determination of gas permeability of tight reservoir cores without using Klinkenberg correlation. SPE88472-MS, 1–11.

  • Liu J (1987) Seepage formula of single fracture under normal stress. Hydrogeol Eng Geol 2(28):32–33

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu J, Chen Z, Elsworth D, Qu H, Chen D (2011) Interactions of multiple processes during CBM extraction: a critical review. Int J Coal Geol 87:175–189

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Louis C (1972) Rock hydraulics. In: Müller L (ed) Rock mechanics. Springer, Vienna, pp 299–387

  • Luffel D L, Hopkins C A, Schettler P D (1993) Matrix permeability measurements of gas productive shales//SPE Annual Technical Conference and Exhibition. Society of Petroleum Engineers

  • Ma Y, Pan Z, Zhong N, Connell LD, Down DI, Lin W, Zhang Y (2016) Experimental study of anisotropic gas permeability and its relationship with fracture structure of Longmaxi Shales, Sichuan Basin, China. Fuel 180(Sep.15):106–115

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mckee CR, Bumb AC, Koenig RA (1988) Stress-dependent permeability and porosity of coal. SPE Form Eval 3(1):81–91

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mcphee C A, Arthur K G (1991) Klinkenberg permeability measurements: problems and practical solutions. Advances in Core Evaluation IL Reservoir Appraisal. Proceedings of the 2nd Society of Core Analysts European Core Analysis Symposium. Gordon & Breach Science Publishers, Philadelphia, 371–391.

  • Metwally YM, Sondergeld CH (2011) Measuring low permeabilities of gas-sands and shales using a pressure transmission technique. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci 48(7):1135–1144

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Moghadam A, Chalaturnyk R (2014) Expansion of the Klinkenberg’s slippage equation to low permeability porous media. Int J Coal Geol 123:2–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pan Z, Connell LD (2012) Modelling permeability for coal reservoirs: a review of analytical models and testing data. Int J Coal Geol 92:1–44

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pan Z, Ma Y, Connell LD, Down DI, Camilleri M (2015) Measuring anisotropic permeability using a cubic shale sample in a triaxial cell. J Nat Gas Sci Eng 26(Complete):336–344

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pathi VSM (2008) Factors affecting the permeability of gas shales. Master’s thesis, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada, p 189

  • Reiss LH (1980) The reservoir engineering aspects of fractured formations. Editions Technip, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Scheidegger AE (1958) The physics of flow through porous media. Soil Sci 86(6):342–355

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Slatt RM, O’Brien NR (2011) Pore types in the Barnett and Woodford gas shales: contribution to understanding gas storage and migration pathways in fine-grained rocks. AAPG Bull 95(12):2017–2030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soeder DJ (1988) Porosity and permeability of Eastern Devonian gas shale. SPE Form Eval 3:116–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tinni A, Fathi E, Agarwal R, Sondergeld C, Akkutlu Y, Rai C (2012) Shale permeability measurements on plugs and crushed samples. In: SPE paper 162235, presented at the SPE Canadian unconventional resources conference, 30 October–1 November, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. https://doi.org/10.2118/162235-MS

  • Walsh JB (1981) Effect of pore pressure and confining pressure on fracture permeability. Int J Rock Mech Min Sci Geomech Abstr 18(5):429–435

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wu T, Pan Z, Connell LD, Liu B, Xue Z (2020) Gas breakthrough pressure of tight rocks: a review of experimental methods and data. J Nat Gas Sci Eng 81:103408

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Yang Y, Aplin AC (2007) Permeability and petrophysical properties of 30 natural mudstones. J Geophys Res 112:1–14

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang SQ, Yin PF, Ranjith PG (2020) Experimental study on mechanical behavior and brittleness characteristics of Longmaxi formation shale in Changning, Sichuan Basin, China. Rock Mech Rock Eng 53(5):2461–2483

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zimmerman RW, Somerton WH, King MS (1986) Compressibility of porous rocks. J Geophys Res Solid Earth 91(B12):12765–12777

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42077231), Six Talents Peak Project in Jiangsu Province (Grant No. JNHB-090) and Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, China Academy of Sciences (Grant No. Z019024). The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments, which have greatly improved this paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering, School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Sheng-Qi Yang, Peng-Fei Yin & Shuai-Bo Xu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430071, Hubei, People’s Republic of China

    Sheng-Qi Yang

Authors
  1. Sheng-Qi Yang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Peng-Fei Yin
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Shuai-Bo Xu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sheng-Qi Yang.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Yang, SQ., Yin, PF. & Xu, SB. Permeability Evolution Characteristics of Intact and Fractured Shale Specimens. Rock Mech Rock Eng 54, 6057–6076 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-021-02603-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-021-02603-y

Keywords

Search

Navigation