Accurate knowledge of the influence of rock deformation on the permeability of fluid flow is of great significance to a variety of engineering applications, such as simultaneous extraction of coal and gas, oil/gas exploitation, CO2 geological sequestration, and underground water conservation. Based on the CT representation of pore structures of sandstones, a LBM(Lattice Boltzmann Method) for simulating CH4 flow in pore spaces at microscale levels and a parallel LBM algorithm for largesize porous models are developed in this paper. The properties of CH4 flow in porous sandstones and the effects of pore structure are investigated using LBM. The simulation is validated by comparing the results with the measured data. In addition, we incorporate LBM and FEM to probe the deformation of microstructures due to applied triaxial forces and its influence on the properties of CH4 flow. It is shown that the proposed method is capable of visually and quantitatively describing the characteristics of microstructure, spatial distribution of flow velocity of CH4,permeability, and the influences of deformation of pore spaces on these quantities as well. It is shown that there is a good consistency between LBM simulation and experimental measurement in terms of the permeability of sandstone with various porosities.
As the depth of exploitation increases,studies on constitutive models of rock affected by temperature and humidity become very important.Based on the Nishihara model,a visco-elastic-plastic rock model was established by using the coefficients of thermal and humidity expansion,thermal viscosity attenuation,humid viscosity attenuation and acceleration rheology components.We used the definition of a controlled heat circle to explain the model.The results show that the behavior of rock,affected by temperature and humidity,is stable as a function of time when the stress is lower than the first yield stress σS1;the creep rate will increase due to the effect of temperature and humidity when the stress is greater than or equal to σS1;the creep rate will accelerate at an increasing rate when the stress is greater than or equal to the second yield stress σS2,which results in a failure of the roadway.The model derived in this study can completely describe visco-elastic-plastic characteristics and reflects the three stages of rock creep.
CO2 capture and storage(CCS) is an important strategy in combatting anthropogenic climate change.However,commercial application of the CCS technique is currently hampered by its high energy expenditure and costs.To overcome this issue,CO2 capture and utilization(CCU) is a promising CO2 disposal method.We,for the first time,developed a promising method to mineralize CO2 using earth-abundant potassium feldspar in order to effectively reduce CO2 emissions.Our experiments demonstrate that,after adding calcium chloride hexahydrate as an additive,the K-feldspar can be transformed to Ca-silicates at 800 C,which can easily mineralize CO2 to form stable calcium carbonate and recover soluble potassium.The conversion of this process reached 84.7%.With further study,the pretreatment temperature can be reduced to 250 C using hydrothermal method by adding the solution of triethanolamine(TEA).The highest conversion can be reached 40.1%.The process of simultaneous mineralization of CO2 and recovery of soluble potassium can be easily implemented in practice and may provide an economically feasible way to tackle global anthropogenic climate change.
Accurate characterization and visualization of the complex inner structure and stress distribution of rocks are of vital significance to solve a variety of underground engineering problems. In this paper, we incorporate several advanced technologies, such as CT scan, three-dimensional(3D) reconstruction, and 3D printing, to produce a physical model representing the natural coal rock that inherently contains complex fractures or joints. We employ 3D frozen stress and photoelastic technologies to characterize and visualize the stress distribution within the fractured rock under uniaxial compression. The 3D printed model presents the fracture structures identical to those of the natural prototype. The mechanical properties of the printed model,including uniaxial compression strength, elastic modulus,and Poisson's ratio, are testified to be similar to those of the prototype coal rock. The frozen stress and photoelastic tests show that the location of stress concentration and the stress gradient around the discontinuous fractures are in good agreement with the numerical predictions of the real coalsample. The proposed method appears to be capable of visually quantifying the influences of discontinuous,irregular fractures on the strength, deformation, and stress concentration of coal rock. The method of incorporating3 D printing and frozen stress technologies shows a promising way to quantify and visualize the complex fracture structures and their influences on 3D stress distribution of underground rocks, which can also be used to verify numerical simulations.
Yang JuHeping XieZemin ZhengJinbo LuLingtao MaoFeng GaoRuidong Peng
