REVIEW

OF SOME

POROELASTIC

EFFECTS

IN ROCK

MECHANICS

A. H-D. Cheng Y. Abousleiman , and J.-C.Roegiers

IDepartment CivilEngineering, of University Delaware, of Newark, Delaware 19716 *School Petroleum Geological of and Engineering
the Universityof Oklahoma, Norman, Oklahoma73019
INTRODUCTION

The presence a free-moving in rockmodifies mechanical of fluid its behavior. particular, In it transforms otherwise an time-independent problem a time-dependent throughfluid to one diffusion.The material behaves a stifferoneunderfast than for slowloading.The induced as fluid pressure generally bringsstress relieve volume or dilationto the solidmaterial. The presence fluid pressure alsomodifythe Terzaghi of can effective stress, whichis keenlytied to the onsetof somefailure mechanisms. The purpose this paper is to review through of examples manifestation the porepressure the of effect(poroelasticity) a number in practical occasions. goodgrasp these A of physical mechanisms equipengineers can with the necessary insightto performprognosis poroelastic of effectfor their problems hand. on
POROELASTIC COEFFICIENTS

Basedon the continuummechanics theory it is well established that an isotropicelastic solid can be characterized two independent by material coefficients. For poroelastic material, a continuummechanics analysisrevealsthat there exist four independent constitutive coefficients. Two of the poroelastic coefficients, shearmodulusG and the drainedbulk the modulus K, are tied to elastic propertiesof the solid skeleton.The third coefficient,known as the Blot effectivestresscoefficient is alsoa property of the solidconstituent. Only the a, last coefficient, Biot modulusM, incorporates fluid elasticproperty. the the For general anisotropicporoelasticity, there are 28 coefficients.Twenty one of them
are elastic constants of the drained skeleton. Six are Biot effective stress coefficients in a

symmetric tensorform aij. The last coefficient is againthe onlyonewhichcontains M fluid

property.

Biot effectivestresscoefficient: It is established thevolumetric that deformation a of

fluid saturatedrock is proportionalnot to the total compressive stress AP, but to the 'Blot effective stress'Ap -- aAp. It is associated with the bulk modulus the skeleton, and of K, that for the solidconstituent,K,, as follows:
K

a- 1--K'

(1)

Hencea measurement K, whichcan be accomplished an unjacketed in the laboraof by test tory, givesan indirectestimateof a. This statementis alsotrue for anisotropic material: a measurement K, combined of with the drainedanisotropic elasticmoduli,defines whole the cqj tensor. This fact is quite convenient the laboratorymeasurement anisotropic for of poroelasticproperties.
529

Drained and undrained responses: While a drainedtest allowsus to measure elasthe tic propertiesof the skeleton,an undrainedtest will samplethe combined strengthof solid and fluid. An undrainedtest can be performed wrappingthe samplein an impermeable by membrane.Similar to the drainedtest, we can definea 'undrMned bulk modulus'K according to the applied load and the resultant deformation. It is related to the micromechanical
quantities of solid and fluid as

K=K+KiKi(KK)+$K(K - (K-K) - Ki)

whereK I is fluid bulk modulusand the porosity.

(2)

Skempton effect: When a specimen subjected an incremental is to average compressive stress AP underundrained condition, ratio between porepressure Ap and the the the rise average stress associated is with the Skempton porepressure coetcient and the undrained B
Poisson ratio y as:

Ap = BAP

zxp 2B(1 = +v)/xp 3 Ap= B(l+v,) AP 3(1 - .)

respectively three-dimensional, for plane-strainand one-dimensional problems.

(Sb) (3c)

Poroelastic stress coefficient: Analogous thermal stress, to there exist a pore pressure inducedstress.Under certainconditions the stress [1], generated to porepressure due can 'be expressed as

axx"1ayy"1azz -- -4rip c c axx-}'ayy -- -2r/p axx = -2r/p

respectively three-dimensional, for plane-strainand one-dimensional problems. Diffusivity coefficient

(4a) (4b) (4c)

The diffusivitycoefficient togetherwith a characteristic lengthscalegenerally controls the time scaleof poroelastic phenomena. Figure 1 illustratethe relevanttime scaleas a function of geometric sizeand diffusivitycoefficient a few geomaterials. for
EXAMPLES

Mandel problem: The classical Mandelproblem involves specimen a sandwiched between two rigid, impermeable plates. As predictedby the Skempton effect, an initial uniform pressure results, rise whichwill eventually dissipated. be According a known to solution [2], the pressure response near the centeris non-monotonic, demonstrated a cross-section as for as shownin Figure 2. The phenomenon momentaryincrease pressure of in beforeits full
530

dissipation beenobserved the laboratoryas well as in the field. This phenomenon, has in whichis not predicted the simplepressure by diffusion, be explained can from the vantage point of poroelasticity the effective as material softening the edges at and the subsequent load transferto the centerregion.
Effective cornpressive stress around borehole: Consider borehole a instantaneously drilled in a porousrock that is characterized a non-hydrostatic by horizontalstress field. The porepressure, both that existing in-situ,and that generated the excavation, by tendsto protectthe borehole againstcompressive stress the form of a reduced in Terzaghieffective stress Figure3 demonstrates amountof 'shielding' [3]. the provided compared the final as to drained state, at the dimensionless time t* = 0.1. Effective tensile stress around borehole: The suddendrop of pore pressure the in wellborecan causea tensileregionnear the wall. Figure 4 illustrates the tensileregion art (positive ' ) at t* = 0.01 as the upperdiagram,and the final steadystatewhichis entirely under compression the lower diagram. This type of poroelastic as effecthas been utilized for the industry applicationof coal cavitation.
Shear failure around borehole: Figure 5 presents the ratio of maximum shear stress Sm to the meaneffective compressive stress P'. The tensileregions cr'r blocked for is out by markingthem in light tone. The dark shading corresponds the areamostsusceptible to to shearfailure. We observe that the peak value is somewhere insidethe formation.

Hydraulic fracturing: Poroelastic effectin hydraulicfracturingmanifests the form in of a poroelastic stress(back-stress), a pressure and dependent leakoff. Figure 6 depicts

the fracturelengthof a PKN fracturesimulated a numerical by model[4, 5]. The solid

line represents pressure-dependent a leak. The dotted lines are upper and lower bounds estimatedbasedon the classical pressure-independent Carter leakoff.
Acknowledgments--Theeffort is supportedby the National ScienceFoundation "Rock Mechanics Research Center" grant to the Universityof Oklahomaand the Rock Mechanics Consortium,with a subcontractto the Universityof Delaware. A large portion of the review is basedon our earlier collaborationwith EmmanuelDetournay. His contributionis duly acknowledged.

References
[1] Detournay, E. and Cheng, A.H-D., "Fundamentals poroelasticity," appear as Chapter 5, Compreof to hensiveRockEngineering:Principles,Practice Projects, Vol. ,ed. J.A. Hudson,PergamonPress,
1993.

[2] Cheng,A.H-D. and Detournay,E., "A directboundaryelement methodfor planestrain poroelasticity",

Int. J. Numer. Anal. Meth. Geomech.,12, 551-572, 1988.

[3] Detournay,E. and Cheng,A.H-D., "Poroelastic response a borehole a non-hydrostatic of in stress field",
Int. J. Rock Mech. Min. Sci. Geomech.Abstr., 25, 171-182, 1988.

[4] Detournay, Cheng, E., A.H-D. and McLennan, J.D., "A poroelastic PKN hydraulic fracture modelbased on an explicitmovingmeshalgorithm," EnergyResour. J. Technology, ASME, 112, 224-230,1990.

[5] Abousleiman, Y.N., "A poroelastic PKN model with pressure dependent leakoff formation and permeability determination," Doctoral Dissertation,Univ. Delaware, 1991.
531

1
0.75 0.5 0.25

1.2
-0.25
-0.5

1.4

1.6 '-'"'TT'8----2 r/a

-0.75 -1 1 0.75 0.5 0.25

r/a

-0.25 -0.5

.1.
-1

6 1.8 2

10-' 1 10 10 1 % 1Q"10" 10' 10 10' to tsec)

Fig. 1. Characteristic time for various rocks.

-0.75

Fig. 4. Effective radial stress (Crrr/Po), -- 0.01,c. t*

?'"';:,.;. ox/a
1.5

.i-.:.:.!i!:E:'-

--

-f '
'-:%',' ':."--'::-' :k. .....

':"!::'

O. S

.-.':'.-.'.:' ':J 20. 3 ,"

%:.:?;:.:.;:.?.]:::;?;;:.;?;:;:??i;,':?J:?"
0.5

'.::'::L:;:K4::2:.::::':':-:?'.:'":,"' ' ' '':?:'"

,,S

0.5

1.5

Fig. 2. Pore pressure history for Mandel problem.

2

Fig. 5. Distributionof Sm/Pmaroundthe boreholeat t* =

0.1.

120

--.

%.

80.

o. 4
O.

O.
O.

40-

0
2

,,
0

2000

,ooo

eooo

.ooo

Fig. 3. Evolution e asperturbation of fromthe finalstate. Fig. 6. Fracture length history from a PKN fracture simulator. ct/a2 = 0.1.

t (sec)

532