Hydromechanical behavior of Tournemire argillites: Measurement of the poroelastic parameters and estimation of the intrinsic permeability by œdometric tests

Abstract

Abstract Knowledge of shale poromechanical behavior is proven to be essential for various environmental issues such as deep geological storage of CO 2 , high level radioactive waste storage, oil field abandonment and so forth… This paper sets out the key points of shale experimental characterization within the framework of Biot's mechanics of fluid saturated porous solids. Shales are well known to present a more or less transverse isotropy. This paper describes a full methodology for œdometric tests on such sensitive and weakly permeable material. To illustrate this methodology, measurements carried out on Tournemire argillite are proposed. A transverse isotropic poroelastic model is also used to give a more in depth understanding of the hydromechanical coupling. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.