Post melting behavior of gas hydrates in soft ocean sediments Conference Paper uri icon

abstract

  • The release of gas in soft ocean sediments associated with the dissociation of gas hydrates was modeled in a geotechnical centrifuge at Texas A&M University (TAMU). The use of the centrifuge allowed the simulation of varying sediment and water depth combinations that would have been cost prohibitive in full scale field testing. It also lead to the experimental identification of failure patterns in soft sediments subsequent to hydrate melting. The TAMU centrifuge was instrumented, calibrated and modified to accommodate the experiments needs. Features such as pressure sources, miniature pore pressure transducers and video imaging were mounted on the centrifuge mobile arms. Gas cavities were induced at the bottom of cylindrical soil samples subjected to gravitational fields reaching 100 g-levels. Results showed two predominant types of failure patterns and their dependence on shear strength properties. Experimental findings were confirmed by theoretical formulations.

published proceedings

  • Proceedings of the Annual Offshore Technology Conference

author list (cited authors)

  • Chaouch, A., & Briaud, J. L.

complete list of authors

  • Chaouch, A||Briaud, JL

publication date

  • December 1997