SPE Journal
Volume 18, Number 2, April 2013, pp. 196-206

Summary

This paper presents an explicit time-marching formulation for the solution of the coupled thermal flow mechanical behavior of gas hydrate sediment. The formulation considers the soil skeleton as a deformable elastoplastic continuum, with an emphasis on the effect of hydrate (and its dissociation) on the stress-strain behavior of the soil. In the formulation, the hydrate is assumed to deform with the soil and may dissociate into gas and water. The formulation is explicitly coupled, such that the changes in temperature because of energy flow and hydrate dissociation affect the skeleton stresses and fluid (water and gas) pressures. This, in return, affects the mechanical behavior. A simulation of a vertical well within a layered soil is presented. It is shown that the heterogeneity of hydrate saturation causes different rates of dissociation in the layers. The difference alters the overall gas production and also the mechanical-deformation pattern, which leads to loading/unloading shearing along the interfaces between the layers.

© 2013. Society of Petroleum Engineers

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History

• Original manuscript received: 6 February 2011
• Revised manuscript received: 20 February 2012
• Manuscript approved: 1 May 2012
• Published online: 15 January 2013
• Version of record: 5 April 2013