COMPORTEMENT HYDRO-MECANIQUE DE ROCHES RESERVOIR SOUS CONTRAINTES :
Relations entre évolution de perméabilité et échelles des mécanismes d'endommagement

摘要

The Understanding and the prevention of damage mechanisms, which have an impact on the kinetics of production and the rate of recovery, remain an outstanding issue in reservoir engineering. The aim of this study, based on the characterization of the hydromechanical behaviour of sandstone and carbonate rocks in 'reservoir conditions', is the identification of the local mechanisms responsible for changes in permeability measured macroscopically. The experimental work was performed with an original triaxial set-up, which allows measurements of the stress-induced permeability evolutions in the principal directions of the stress tensor. A first experimental campaign, consisting in hydrostatic and uniaxial compression tests, has been performed on Fontainebleau and Bentheim sandstones. In one hand, we showed that experimental end-effects might affect significantly the ‘classical' axial permeability measurements, and in the other hand, we have determined the impact of brittle failure on directional permeabilities. Compression experiments, following different stress-paths, were also carried out on a carbonate, the Estaillades limestone. In elastic deformation regime, the reduction of permeability was modelized by pore network simulations, based on 3D reconstructions of μ-tomography RX and a simplified representation of the pore space. While brittle fracture of carbonate samples induced slight permeability evolutions, at higher effective pressure, permeability drops can reach 90% to the initial values and are associated with mechanisms of pore collapse. The post-mortem analysis of deformed samples, coupled with digital image correlation methods, using both SEM and Optical acquisition devices, provide a better understanding of the role of the heterogeneities, identified at different scales, in the strain localization and their potential impacts on permeability changes at the sample scale.