Indexed by:Journal Article

Date of Publication:2013-10-01

Journal:JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-SOLID EARTH

Included Journals:Scopus、SCIE

Volume:118

Issue:10

Page Number:5185-5194

ISSN:2169-9313

Key Words:methane hydrate; mechanical behavior; gas-saturated; triaxial test

Abstract:A series of triaxial compression tests were conducted in order to investigate the mechanical behavior of gas-saturated methane hydrate-bearing sediments, and a comparison was made between gas-saturated and water-saturated specimens. Measurements on gas-saturated specimens indicate that (1) the larger the methane hydrate saturation, the larger the failure strength and the more apparent the shear dilation behavior; (2) failure strength and stiffness increase with increasing effective confining stress and pore pressure applied during compression, though the specimen becomes less dilative under higher effective confining stress; (3) lower temperatures lead to an increase of the stiffness and failure strength; (4) stiffness of specimens formed under lower pore pressure is higher than that of specimens formed under higher pore pressure but at the same effective stress; (5) stiffness and failure strength of gas-saturated specimens are higher than those of water-saturated specimens; (6) gas-saturated specimens show more apparent strain-softening behavior and larger volumetric strain than that of water-saturated specimens.