A finite-element study of the influence of grain contacts on the elastic properties of unconsolidated sandstones
Access Status
Authors
Date
2017Type
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Source Title
ISSN
School
Collection
Abstract
© 2017 The grain-grain interaction in a sandstone rock can result in an overall elastic response of the system, which is primarily determined by the grain contact stiffness and the grain contact volume fraction. In this paper, we propose a numerical algorithm to vary the contact volume fraction based on 3D Digital Rock images from x-ray microtomography (µ-CT). We then calculate the effective elastic moduli of the model systems for various contact parameters using the Finite Element Method. Using an extensive fitting procedure, we find a set of empirical equations that model the effective bulk and shear moduli of the system. We show that our proposed set of empirical equations can accurately predict the mechanical properties of unconsolidated sandstones rocks.
Related items
Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.
-
Madadi, Mahyar; Christy, A. (2012)We modified the self-consistent coherent potential approximation (CPA) for modeling properties of granular composite materials so that it takes into consideration the grain coordination number and distinctive elastic ...
-
Ultrasonic velocities of unconsolidated sand: Evaluating the microstructure and contact based modelsAhmed, Z.; Lebedev, Maxim (2017)Microstructure and grain shape factors largely affect the seismic velocities through unconsolidated sands. Moreover, parameters such as coordination number (CN) and contact surface area are dependent on the grain sorting ...
-
Lin, Qun; Tordesillas, A. (2014)We use concepts and techniques of network optimization theory to gain a better understanding of force transmission in dense granular materials. Specifically, we represent a deforming granular material over the different ...