Some aspects of air-entrainment on decay rates in hydraulic pulse tests

Abstract Important factors that can influence interpretation of the pulse tests include the compressibility and viscosity of the fluid that either saturates the pore space of the rock or is used to pressurize the chamber, which generates the pressure pulse. Fluid compressibility can be influenced by entrained air. This paper examines theoretically, the influence of compressibility and viscosity variations in both the interstitial pore water and within the pressurizing chamber, on the performance of the hydraulic pulse test. Convenient analytical results can be derived to account for variations in compressibility and viscosity resulting from entrained air. Theoretical results indicate that the entrained gas content can have an appreciable influence on the pressure decay curves, and particularly high volume fractions of the entrained air can influence the estimation of the permeability from hydraulic pulse tests. The paper concludes with a brief discussion of the influence of dissolved air on the performance of pulse tests.

[1]  M. Biot.  General Theory of Three‐Dimensional Consolidation , 1941 .

[2]  A. Einstein.  Eine neue Bestimmung der Moleküldimensionen , 1905 .

[3]  R. Christensen,et al.  Mechanics of composite materials , 1979 .

[4]  Andrew N. Norris,et al.  Low‐frequency dispersion and attenuation in partially saturated rocks , 1993 .

[5]  S Pietruszczak,et al.  CONSTITUTIVE RELATIONS FOR PARTIALLY SATURATED SOILS CONTAINING GAS INCLUSIONS. DISCUSSION AND CLOSURE , 1997 .

[6]  Ir. E. Schuurman.  The Compressibility of an Air/Water Mixture and a Theoretical Relation Between the Air and Water Pressures , 1966 .

[7]  A.P.S. Selvadurai,et al.  Surface permeability tests: experiments and modelling for estimating effective permeability , 2010, Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences.

[8]  J. Teunissen.  Mechanics of a fluid-gas mixture in a porous medium , 1982 .

[9]  Simon J. Wheeler,et al.  A conceptual model for soils containing large gas bubbles , 1988 .

[10]  R. Hill.  Elastic properties of reinforced solids: some theoretical principles , 1963 .

[11]  A.P.S. Selvadurai,et al.  Permeability Hysterisis of Limestone During Isotropic Compression , 2008, Ground water.

[12]  A. Selvadurai,et al.  Radial Flow Permeability Testing of an Argillaceous Limestone , 2013, Ground water.

[13]  J. Happel,et al.  Low Reynolds number hydrodynamics: with special applications to particulate media , 1973 .

[14]  A.P.S. Selvadurai,et al.  Partial differential equations in mechanics , 2000 .

[15]  A.P.S. Selvadurai,et al.  Fundamentals, Laplace's equation, diffusion equation, wave equation , 2000 .

[16]  O. M. Phillips,et al.  Flow and Reactions in Permeable Rocks , 1991 .

[17]  J. D. Bredehoeft,et al.  A Transient Laboratory Method for Determining the Hydraulic Properties of "Tight"Rocks-I, Theory , 1981 .

[18]  A.P.S. Selvadurai,et al.  Influence of residual hydraulic gradients on decay curves for one-dimensional hydraulic pulse tests , 2009 .

[19]  A.P.S. Selvadurai,et al.  Coupled thermal-mechanical-hydrological behaviour of sparsely fractured rock: Implications for nuclear fuel waste disposal , 1995 .

[20]  G. Batchelor,et al.  An Introduction to Fluid Dynamics , 1968 .

[21]  Nick Petford,et al.  Which effective viscosity? , 2009 .

[22]  A.P.S. Selvadurai,et al.  Axial flow hydraulic pulse testing of an argillaceous limestone , 2011 .

[23]  A. Selvadurai,et al.  Mechanics of Poroelastic Media , 1996 .

[24]  A.P.S. Selvadurai,et al.  The Permeability of an Intact Granite , 2005 .

[25]  Geoffrey Ingram Taylor,et al.  The two coefficients of viscosity for an incompressible fluid containing air bubbles , 1954, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A. Mathematical and Physical Sciences.

[26]  A. Selvadurai.  Thermally-induced pore pressure generation in a nearly-saturated cementitious material , 2005 .

[27]  A. P. S. Selvadurai,et al.  A transient pressure pulse method for the mesurement of permeability of a cement grout , 1997 .

[28]  J. D. Bredehoeft,et al.  A transient laboratory method for determining the hydraulic properties of ‘tight’ rocks—II. Application , 1981 .

[29]  Yasuaki Ichikawa,et al.  Transport Phenomena in Porous Media: Aspects of Micro/Macro Behaviour , 2012 .

[30]  van Meh Rini Dongen,et al.  Wave propagation in porous media containing a dilute gas–liquid mixture: theory and experiments , 1997, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[31]  D. G. Fredlund,et al.  Density and compressibility characteristics of air–water mixtures , 1976 .

[32]  A.P.S. Selvadurai,et al.  The Analytical Method in Geomechanics , 2007 .

[33]  J. B. Walsh,et al.  Permeability of granite under high pressure , 1968 .

[34]  A.P.S. Selvadurai,et al.  On the interpretation of hydraulic pulse tests on rock specimens , 2013 .