• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.58-68
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• 2011

As part of basic studies of monitoring carbon dioxide ($CO_2$) storage using electrical and seismic surveys, laboratory experiments have been conducted to measure resistivity and P-wave velocity changes due to the injection of $CO_2$ into water-saturated sandstone. The rock sample used is a cylinder of Berea sandstone. $CO_2$ was injected under supercritical conditions (10 MPa, $40^{\circ}C$). The experimental results show that resistivity increases monotonously throughout the injection period, while P-wave velocity and amplitude decrease drastically due to the supercritical $CO_2$ injection. A reconstructed P-wave velocity tomogram clearly images $CO_2$ migration in the sandstone sample. Both resistivity and seismic velocity are useful for monitoring $CO_2$ behaviour. P-wave velocity, however, is less sensitive than resistivity when the $CO_2$ saturation is greater than ~20%. The result indicates that the saturation estimation from resistivity can effectively complement the difficulty of $CO_2$ saturation estimations from seismic velocity variations. By combining resistivity and seismic velocity we were able to estimate $CO_2$ saturation distribution and the injected $CO_2$ behaviour in our sample.

• Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry
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• v.68
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• pp.355-363
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• 2018

There are serious issues with the application of surfactant flooding as a third recovery method, such as surfactant slug losses. In this study,the impact of the salinity gradient on the remobilization of oiltrapped in Berea sandstone was investigated by emphasizing the surfactant adsorption gradient and phase behavior to determine the optimal salinity of the chosen surfactant concentration for investigating the salinity gradient. Three salinity-gradient schemes were applied to six cores saturated with light and heavy oils. The positive salinity gradient provided the best recovery results with an in situ microemulsion formation that could be observed in the fluid collector.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.353-362
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• 2014

Pore structures in porous rock play an important role in hydraulic & mechanical behaviour of rock. Porosity, size distribution and orientation of pores represent the characteristics of pore structures of porous rock. While effective porosity can be measured easily by conventional experiment, pore size distribution is hard to be quantified due to the lack of corresponding experiment. We assessed pore size distribution of Berea sandstone using X-ray CT image based analysis combined with associated images processing, i.e., image filtering, binarization and skeletonization subsequently followed by the assessment of local thickness and star chord length. The aim of this study is to propose a new and effective way to evaluate pore structures of porous rock using X-ray CT based analysis for pore size distribution.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.447-460
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• 2016

Samples of Hangdeung granite and Berea sandstone containing sliding planes were prepared by saw-cutting and polishing using #100 or #600 grinding powders. Their basic friction angles were then measured directly in direct shear tests and triaxial compression tests, and also in tilt tests, which measure the angles indirectly. Although the angles measured by the direct methods were generally accurate, those measured along certain planes were greatly different from the others depending on the condition of the plane. The tilt tests yielded similar angles regardless of the sliding plane condition or the rock type; however, the error range was relatively wide. Sliding planes polished by the grinding powders yielded more accurate results than those cut by the saw and tested without polishing, as polishing ensured consistent conditions among all the planes. Sliding planes polished using #100 grinding powder yielded better results than polishing with #600 grinding powder. Therefore, the basic friction angles measured along the sliding planes polished using #100 grinding powder, as obtained in direct shear and triaxial compression tests, were the most reliable. The angle could also be measured satisfactorily by tilt testing along sliding planes polished with #100 grinding powder.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.323-336
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• 2011

The hydro-mechanical behavior of the Earth's crust is strongly dependent on the fractional volume and geometrical structure of effective pore spaces. This study aims to understand the characteristics of pores using electrical impedance. We measured the electric impedance of core samples (diameter, 38-50 mm; length, 70-100 mm) of three types of granite (Hwangdeung, Pocheon, and Yangsan) and two types of sandstone (Boryung and Berea) with different porosities and pore structures, after saturation with saline water of varying salinities. The results show that resistance decreases but capacitance increases with increasing salinity of the pore fluid. For a given salinity, the resistivity and formation factor are reduced with increasing porosity of the rocks, and the capacitance increases. Berea sandstone shows anisotropy in resistance, tortuosity, and cementation factor, with these factors being highest normal to bedding planes. This result indicates that the connectivity of pores is weakest normal to bedding. In conclusion, the electrical characteristics of the tested samples are related not only to their porosity but also to the pore geometry.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.225-236
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• 2000

We conducted laboratory simulations of deep vertical drilling into the earth's crust to induce borehole breakouts and investigated their potential use for estimating in situ stress magnitudes in Westerly granite and Berea sandstone. Our experiments consisted of two major stages, a series of triaxial tests and borehole-breakout formation tests under a wide range of far-field stresses. We derived the Mohr-Coulomb, Nadai and Mogi failure criteria from the triaxial test results. Each criterion was compared with the stress condition at breakout boundaries. We concluded that the well known Mohr-Coulomb criterion is not compatible with the stress condition at breakout failure. On the other hand, polyaxial (truly triaxial) failure criteria such as the Nadai criterion for Berea sandstone and the Mogi criterion for Westerly granite were much more suitable for predicting breakout failure zone. Such failure criteria appeared to enable the reliable estimation of the magnitude of one of two horizontal principal stresses if the other one is known.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.151-159
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• 2018

Annually, the global production of construction aggregates reaches over 40 billion tons, making aggregates the largest mining sector by volume and value. Currently, the aggregate industry is shifting from sand to hard rock as a result of legislation limiting the extraction of natural sands and gravels. A major implication of this change in the aggregate industry is the need for understanding rock fragmentation and energy absorption to produce more cost-effective aggregates. In this paper, we focused on incorporating dynamic rock and soil mechanics to understand the effects of loading rate and water saturation on the rock fragmentation and energy absorption of three different sandstones (Red, Berea and Buff) with different pore sizes. Rock core samples were prepared in accordance to the ASTM standards for compressive strength testing. Saturated and dry samples were subsequently prepared and fragmented via fast and dynamic compressive strength tests. The particle size distributions of the resulting fragments were subsequently analyzed using mechanical gradation tests. Our results indicate that the rock fragment size generally decreased with increasing loading rate and water content. In addition, the fragment sizes in the larger pore size sample (Buff sandstone) were relatively smaller those in the smaller pore size sample (Red sandstone). Notably, energy absorption decreased with increased loading rate, water content and rock pore size. These results support the conclusion that rock fragment size is positively correlated with the energy absorption of rocks. In addition, the rock fragment size increases as the energy absorption increases. Thus, our data provide insightful information for improving cost-effective aggregate production methods.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.26-38
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• 2017

In this study, bedding rock permeability was measured using Berea sandstones with three different beddings. The fracture permeability was also measured using tight sandstone with two different fracture regimes considering in-situ stress conditions. The Berea sandstone with vertical, horizontal and non-bedding was used to analyze evolution of permeability upon in-situ stress conditions. In order to describe applied effective stress around rock in underground, the triaxial pressure cell & hydrostatic pressure cell was designed and permeability experiments were performed with controlled axial and confining pressures. The measurement of permeability was conducted by increasing and decreasing effective stress. The permeability of non-bedding rock sample is the most sensitive to applied stress conditions and fracture permeability of tight sandstone increases with fracture treatment with proppant.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.121-128
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• 2014

As the permeability is an important parameter to characterize the ease with which a porous medium transmits fluids, it is usually obtained by fluid flow experiment using core samples. In order to measure the permeability, however, an experimental apparatus is required and it might take long measurement time, especially for tight samples. In this study, the relationship between permeability and porosity as well as drying rate has been investigated to predict the permeability without a series of measuring experiments. Porosity is measured by drying monitoring method, which measures weight variation continuously while drying surface-dried saturated sample, and drying rate is obtained from weight variation ratio with respect to the water saturation. The total of 6 Berea sandstone samples, which have a permeability range of 70 to 670 mD, were used in this work, and a new and empirical equation which could predict permeability of porous sandstone by using porosity and drying rate were obtained through regression analysis.

• The Journal of Engineering Geology
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.565-578
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• 2019

Basic friction angles of Hwangdeung granite, Berea sandstone, Jeongsun marble, Hongcheon gneiss, Pungam shale and Eumseong sandy shale were measured by direct shear test, tilt test and pull test. Characteristics of basic friction angle and the accuracy of test methods were compared and the optimal method in measuring basic friction angle was suggested. Although basic friction angles might be measured accurately by direct shear test, the test apparatus is expensive and procedures are complicated. Tilt tests which is the suggested method for measuring basic friction angle by International Association for Rock Mechanics also provided similar basic friction angles measured by direct shear test. However, the error measured for the same rock type is higher than 7° and values by repeated measurements in one sample show different trends, such as increasing or decreasing or almost constant as measurements continued. The difference measured in one gneiss sample is higher 12°, indicating that tilt test may be not a reliable method for measuring basic friction angle. Not only pull test provided accurate and consistent results under low normal stresses, but also test apparatus is simple and inexpensive and procedure is not complicated, indicating that pull test may be the optimal method for measuring basic friction angle.