Because the rate of water movement in argillaceous rocks depends considerably on the conditions of measurement, the only permeability measurements of practical field significance for these rocks are those obtained while the sample was held at temperatures and pressures that duplicated natural subsurface conditions as closely as possible. In laboratory measurements decribed in this report, the permeabilities of argillaceous rocks from the lower Cretaceous of western Canada ranged from 10 to the minus 7 power to 10 to the minus 4 powermillidarcy decreasing as the rocks became more clayey. Since argillaceous rocks tend to be compressible, flow rates through these rocks were dependent upon the difference between confining and average fluid pressures. Furthermore, the flow rates changed more with temperature than would be expected from the normal changes of water viscosity with temperature. This anomalous flow behavior suggests that the water in clayey rocks has a structure that is different from the structure of bulk water.
[1]
P. F. Low,et al.
Threshold Gradient for Water Flow in Clay Systems
,
1963
.
[2]
W. D. Kemper.
Movement of Water as Effected by Free Energy and Pressure Gradients: II. Experimental Analysis of Porous Systems in Which Free Energy and Pressure Gradients Act in Opposite Directions 1
,
1961
.
[3]
P. F. Low.
VISCOSITY OF WATER IN CLAY SYSTEMS1
,
1959
.
[4]
L. Ping.
MEASURING EXTREMELY LOW FLOW VELOCITY OF WATER IN CLAYS
,
1963
.
[5]
H. Eyring,et al.
Theory of the Viscosity of Liquids as a Function of Temperature and Pressure
,
1937
.
[6]
R. A. Hemstock,et al.
The Effective Compressibility of Reservoir Rock and Its Effects on Permeability
,
1958
.
[7]
D. H. Gray,et al.
The Effect of Stress on Permeability of Sandstone Cores
,
1963
.
[8]
P. F. Low.
Physical Chemistry of Clay-Water Interaction
,
1961
.