• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2011.05a
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• pp.151-151
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• 2011

Large amounts of natural gas, mainly methane, in the form of hydrates are stored on continental margins. When gas hydrates are dissociated by any environmental trigger, generation of excess pore pressure due to released free gas may cause sediment deformation and weakening. Hence, damage on offshore structures or submarine landslide can occur by gas hydrate dissociation. Therefore, geotechnical stability of gas hydrate bearing sediments is in need to be securely assessed. However, geotechnical characteristics of gas hydrates bearing sediments including small-strain elastic moduli have been poorly identified. Synthesizing gas hydrate in natural seabed sediment specimen, which is mainly composed of silty-to-clayey soils, has been hardly attempted due to their low permeability. Moreover, it has been known that hydrate loci in pore spaces and heterogeneity of hydrate growth in specimen scale play a critical role in determining physical properties of hydrate bearing sediments. In the presented study, we synthesized gas hydrate containing sediments in an instrumented oedometric cell. Geotechnical and geophysical properties of gas hydrate bearing sediments including compressibility, small-strain elastic moduli, elastic wave, and electrical resistivity are determined by wave-based techniques during loading and unloading processes. Significant changes in volume change, elastic wave, and electrical resistivity have been observed during formation and dissociation of gas hydrate. Experimental results and analyses reveal that geotechnical properties of gas hydrates bearing sediments are highly governed by hydrate saturation, effective stress, void ratio, and soil types as well as morphological feature of hydrate formation in sediments.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.5
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• pp.424-431
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• 2009

This study investigates the difference of sound velocity (compressional wave velocity) between gas hydrate-bearing sediments and nongas hydrate-bearing sediments in the Ulleung Basin, East Sea. We use a dataset measured from one site in the central part of the Ulleung Basin. Sound velocity for gas hydrate-bearing sediment shows the range from 1600 m/s to 2200 m/s. However, the value for nongas hydrate-bearing sediment is mostly around 1500 m/s, being less than 1400 m/s below 140 m subbottom depth. This trend is probably due to the presence of free gas below BSR (Bottom Simulating Reflector). Gas hydrate-bearing sediments show high value (maximum 150 Ohm-m) of resistivity. The physical properties between gas hydrate-bearing sediment and nongas hydrate-bearing sediment are characterized by the different patterns due to the presence of gas hydrate in comparison with those of marine unconsolidated sediments. Therefore, in order to investigate acoustic and physical properties for gas hydrate-bearing sediments, the study for the occurrence type and the amount of gas hydrates should be conducted simultaneously.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.37 no.3
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• pp.19-30
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• 2021

The presence of the hydrate-bearing sediments in Ulleung Basin of South Korea has been confirmed from previous studies. Researches on gas production methods from the hydrate-bearing sediments have been conducted worldwide. As production mechanism is a complex phenomenon in which thermal, hydraulic, and mechanical phenomena occur simultaneously, it is difficult to accurately conduct the productivity and stability analysis of hydrate bearing sediments through lab-scale experiments. Thus, the importance of numerical analysis in evaluating gas productivity and stability of hydrate-bearing sediments has been emphasized. In this study, the numerical parametric analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of the bottom hole pressure and the depressurization rate on the gas productivity and stability of hydrate-bearing sediments during the depressurization method. The numerical analysis results confirmed that as the bottom hole pressure decreases, the productivity increases and the stability of sediments deteriorates. Meanwhile, it was shown that the depressurization rate did not largely affect the productivity and stability of the hydrate-bearing sediments. In addition, sensitivity analysis for gas productivity and stability of the sediments were conducted according to the depressurization rate in order to establish a production strategy that prevents sand production during gas production. As a result of the analysis, it was confirmed that controlling the depressurization rate from a low value to a high value is effective in securing the stability. Moreover, during gas production, the subsidence of sediments occurred near the production well, and ground heave occurred at the bottom of the production well due to the pressure gradient. From these results, it was concluded that both the productivity and stability analyses should be conducted in order to determine the bottom hole pressure when producing gas using the depressurization method. Additionally, the stress analysis of the production well, which is induced by the vertical displacements of sediments, should be evaluated.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.594-596
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• 2007

Using an oedometer cell instrumented to measure the evolution of electromagnetic properties, small strain stiffness, and temperature, we conducted consolidation tests on four types of sediments. The tested specimens include sediments with different gas hydrate saturation at four stages of loading. The test results show that the electromagnetic and mechanical properties of hydrate-bearing marine sediments are governed by the vertical effective stress, stress history, porosity, hydrate saturation, fabric, ionic concentration of the pore fluid, and temperature. The results also show that permittivity and electrical conductivity data can be combined to estimate hydrate volume fraction in laboratory sediments, methodology that might eventually be extended for estimation of hydrate concentrations in field settings.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.703-704
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• 2009

Natural gas Hydrate is an ice-like crystal containing natural gas it. Natural gas hydrate is studied as a new energy resource and a factor for seafloor slope stability and global warming. The unique pressure and temperature stability conditions of natural gas hydrate have challenged the research efforts. In this study, a new tool to study hydrate-bearing sediments and the preliminary results are introduced. The device can sustain 20MPa of the fluid pressure and apply 5MPa of the vertical effective stress under the temperature control. Cell can be scanned by X-ray CT scanner and also has the capability of multi-sensor data acquisition. Preliminary results suggests various application of the cell to hydrate-bearing research.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.588-590
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• 2008

The thermal signature of nucleation process is characterized by the induction time, the degree of supercooling, and the equilibrium temperature depression. The initiation of nucleation presents stochastic characteristics. The factors that affect nucleation are mechanical impact, ionic concentration, mineral surface characters, and pore size. Hydrate-bearing sediments behave mechanically like other cemented sediments. The data set has important implications for the calibration and interpretation of geophysical measurements and downhole logs collected in gas hydrate provinces, providing particular insight for the interpretation of P- and S-wave data and resistivity logs. In addition, laboratory formation history and ensuing pore-scale spatial distribution likely have a more pronounced effect on the macroscale mechanical properties of hydrate-bearing sediments

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.133-143
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• 2015

Gas hydrate is a solid substance composed of natural gas constrained in water molecules under low temperature and high pressure conditions. The existence of hydrates has been reported to be world-widely distributed, mainly at permafrost and deep ocean floor. Test productions of small amount of natural gas from the on-shore permafrost have been accomplished in U.S.A and Canada, but, world-first and the only production case from off-shore hydrate bearing sediments was in Nankai trough, Japan. In this study, we introduce key technologies in gas production from hydrates by analyzing the Japanese off-shore gas production project in Nankai trough in terms of depressurization- induced dissociation so as to utilize planned domestic gas production test in Ulleung basin.

• Geophysics and Geophysical Exploration
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.29-36
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• 2007

Recent seismic surveys have shown that the presence of methane hydrate (MH) in sediments has significant influence on seismic attenuation. I have used vertical seismic profile (VSP) data from a Nankai Trough exploratory well, offshore Tokai in central Japan, to estimate compressional attenuation in MH-bearing sediments at seismic frequencies of 30-110 Hz. The use of two different measurement methods (spectral ratio and centroid frequency shift methods) provides an opportunity to validate the attenuation measurements. The sensitivity of attenuation analyses to different depth intervals, borehole irregularities, and different frequency ranges was also examined to validate the stability of attenuation estimation. I found no significant compressional attenuation in MH-bearing sediments at seismic frequencies. Macroscopically, the peaks of highest attenuation in the seismic frequency range correspond to low-saturation gas zones. In contrast, high compressional attenuation zones in the sonic frequency range (10-20 kHz) are associated with the presence of methane hydrates at the same well locations. Thus, this study demonstrated the frequency-dependence of attenuation in MH-bearing sediments; MH-bearing sediments cause attenuation in the sonic frequency range rather than the seismic frequency range As a possible reason why seismic frequencies in the 30-110 Hz range were not affected in MH-bearing sediments, I point out the effect of thin layering of MH-bearing zones.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.34 no.8
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• pp.1203-1211
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• 2010

In order to study geology and sediment characteristics in Danghang Bay area, surface geological survey, SBP (sub-bottom profiler) survey, and sediment analysis were conducted. Danghang Bay area has a closing coast surrounded by land, and surface layer are covered by mud and sandy mud. Sedimentary facies of the surface layer consists of Mm and Mms facies. A SBP seismic survey shows that gas bearing sediments might be spread throughout the sediment layers, so that it seems to be hard to find acoustic basement and gas seeps are easily found throughout the survey lines. The gas trapped in the sediments may be related to the high organic contents of the sediment, and the thick mud layer may restrain the gas from releasing.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.10a
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• pp.186-187
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• 2008

Electrical resistivity in hydrate-bearing sediments is sensitive to porosity, gas hydrate saturation, gas content, pore fluid composition, and temperature, so electrical measurements such as well logs and electromagnetic surveys have been used to explore gas hydrate-bearing formation. The high pressure tomography cell is designed considering the effect of electrode configuration and electrical shielding on tomography measurements and the safety. The evolution of electrical conductivity during $CO_2$ hydrate formation and dissociation reflects the combined effects of concurrent changes that include ionization of dissolved $CO_2$, temperature-dependent ionic mobility, changes in the degree of saturation, ion exclusion, surface conduction, and porosity changes. Measurements during hydrate formation and dissociation require careful analysis to properly interpret signatures, in particular when out-of plane conductivity anomalies prevail.