Relations between Physical and Mechanical Properties of Core Samples from the Bukpyeong and Pohang Basins

Abstract

A geologic survey of the Bukpyeong and Pohang basins, as candidate basins for the geological storage of CO2, was per- formed to evaluate storage capacity and security. To analyze the mechanical stability of the storage reservoir and cap rocks, we measured the porosity, seismic velocity, uniaxial strength, internal frictional angle, and Young’s modulus of core sam- ples recovered from the two basins. It is costly and sometimes impossible to conduct tests over the entire range of drill holes, and continuous logging data do not yield the mechanical parameters directly. In this study, to derive the mechanical properties of geologic formations from the geophysical logging data, we determined the empirical relations between the physical properties (seismic velocity, porosity, and dynamic modulus) and the mechanical properties (uniaxial strength, internal friction angle) of the core samples. From the comparison with our core test data, the best fits to the two basins were selected from the relations suggested in previous studies. The relations between uniaxial strength, Young’s modulus, and porosity of samples from the Bukpyeong and Pohang basins are more consistent with certain rock types than with the local- ity of the basins. The relations between the physical and mechanical properties were used to estimate the mechanical rock properties of geologic formations from seismic logging data. We expect that the mechanical properties could also be used as input data for a modeling study to understand the mechanical instability of rock formations prior to CO2 injection.