Reconstrucción de las curvas de esfuerzo-deformación a partir de datos de conductividad eléctrica en experimentos de deformación triaxial en rocas

Abstract

Measurements of complex electrical conductivity as a function of frequency is an extremely sensitive probe for changes in pore and crack volume, crack connectivity, and crack surface topography. Such measurements have been made as a function of pore fluid chemistry, hydrostatic codning pressure, as well as uniaxial and tnaxial deformation. This paper develops a method for using such experimental conductivity data to model the mechanical properties of saturated rocks undergoing triaxial deformation. It does so by defming a new direction sensitive crack damage parameter denved from the electrical data on four samples of Darley Dale sandstone. More specifically this paper will: 1) review the theoretical concepts necessary to understand the modelling procedure (crack density parameter and effective elastic properties of cracked solids), 2) derive a new crack damage parameter from electrical conductivity data, 3) use the electrical data to model the mechanical stress-strain behavior of porous rocks, and 4) compare the modelled results with the stress-strain behavior measured during the deformation. The resultant synthetic stress-strain curves show good agreement with the experimentally derived stress-strain curves, and the estimated values of model parameters also compare well with their experimental counterparts. This modelling is an improvement on similar curves produced using isotropic crack damage parameters, such as those denved from acoustic emission data. The improvement is likely to be due to the directional sensitivity of the electrical conductivity measurement, and its ability to discriminate between the formation of isolated cracks, and those cracks that contribute to the interconnected crack space, i.e., those cracks upon which both the transport properties of the rock such as electrical conductivity, and the mechanical properties depend most critically during triaxial deformation.