Experimental Measurement of the Transport Flow Path Aperture in Thermally Cracked Granite and the Relationship between Pore Structure and Permeability

Abstract

Fluid flow in rocks has a key role in many geological processes, such as in geothermal reservoirs and crustal deformation. Permeability is known to be dependent on porosity and flow path aperture, but direct quantification of pore structures is more difficult than direct estimation of permeability. The gas breakthrough method can be used to determine the radius of transport pores by using the gas pressure at which gas breaks through a water-saturated sample (ΔPbreak). In this study, we applied the gas breakthrough method under confining pressure to damaged granite, in order to evaluate the relationship between permeability and pore characteristics (i.e., porosity and transport flow path aperture) at pressures up to 30 MPa. The transport flow path aperture, permeability, and porosity of thermally cracked granite decrease with increasing confining pressure. We quantified the relationship between permeability and pore characteristics, which provides a better estimation of permeability by taking into account the fraction of hydraulically connected cracks.