Thermo-Hydro-Mechanical Coupled Modeling of Methane Hydrate-Bearing Sediments: Formulation and Application

Maria De La Fuente, Jean Vaunat and Héctor Marín-Moreno
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Maria De La Fuente: National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton Waterfront Campus, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
Jean Vaunat: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, 08034 Barcelona, Spain
Héctor Marín-Moreno: National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton Waterfront Campus, European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 11, 1-23

Abstract: We present a fully coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical formulation for the simulation of sediment deformation, fluid and heat transport and fluid/solid phase transformations occurring in methane hydrate geological systems. We reformulate the governing equations of energy and mass balance of the Code_Bright simulator to incorporate hydrate as a new pore phase. The formulation also integrates the constitutive model Hydrate-CASM to capture the effect of hydrate saturation in the mechanical response of the sediment. The thermo-hydraulic capabilities of the formulation are validated against the results from a series of state-of-the-art simulators involved in the first international gas hydrate code comparison study developed by the NETL-USGS. The coupling with the mechanical formulation is investigated by modeling synthetic dissociation tests and validated by reproducing published experimental data from triaxial tests performed in hydrate-bearing sands dissociated via depressurization. Our results show that the formulation captures the dominant mass and heat transfer phenomena occurring during hydrate dissociation and reproduces the stress release and volumetric deformation associated with this process. They also show that the hydrate production method has a strong influence on sediment deformation.

Keywords: methane hydrate-bearing sediments; mechanical response induced by hydrate dissociation; thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior; fully coupled numerical modeling; geomechanics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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