The permeability of a coal seam is an important index for coal mine gas control and coalbed methane development, and its magnitude determines the degree of difficulty of gas drainage. To obtain the permeability value, a dimensionless mathematical model for dual-porosity borehole gas-coupled flow in a coal seam was established and adopted using a simulator developed by our group. A new method of inversion was developed to determine the fracture permeability coefficient λf and the matrix micro-channel diffusion coefficient Km by fitting the simulated results with onsite measured data. A range of simulations quantified the effects of different dimensionless parameters on gas migration. The results verified the feasibility of the inversion method based on the high matching degree of the fitted results, and the dimensionless mathematical model was accurate. The desorption and release of adsorbed gas from the center to the surface in coal matrices were heterogeneous, and unsteady states and gas migration times in coal matrices cannot be neglected. The new method can be introduced to analyze the problem of gas migration in different coal reservoirs, simplify the corresponding calculation and computational processes, and provide guidance in determining the permeability of coal seams.
相似文献In situ stress is not only a vital indicator for selecting explorative regions of coalbed methane (CBM), but also a pivotal factor affecting CBM production. The present study explored whether in situ stress affected the development potential of CBM in western Guizhou, China. To this end, we collected injection/falloff well test data and gas content data from 70 coal seams in 28 wells. The study found that from top to bottom, strike slip fault stress fields (<?500 m), normal fault stress fields (500–1000 m) and strike slip fault stress fields (>?1000 m) were successively developed in western Guizhou. The distribution features of vertical permeability in western Guizhou are consistent with the stress fields' transformation location. The coal permeability in the western part in Guizhou presents a tendency of increase followed by decrease as a result of increased burial depth. The vertical development characteristics of coal seam gas content are controlled mainly by reservoir pressure, and the relationship between reservoir pressure and buried depth shows a linear increase. The CBM in western Guizhou is divided vertically into three development potential regions dependent on the characteristics of burial depth, permeability and gas content of coal seams. The most favorable vertical development potential region in western Guizhou is 500–1000 m. This region exhibits high gas content, high permeability and moderate burial depth, which are favorable for the production of CBM. These research results can provide basis for geological selection and engineering implementation of CBM in western Guizhou.
相似文献Relative permeability is an important feature to characterize two-phase flow in coalbed methane (CBM) reservoirs, as it can be widely used in laboratory, simulation studies and field production. The main methods to derive relative permeability curves include history match, laboratory core test and production data. In China, most of the acquired CBM well data are the field production data, so this study intended to evaluate of CBM relative permeability based on production data. The Zhengzhuang area in Qinshui Basin was chosen as a case study. Since flow equations can only be used in radial flow, flow regime was first identified for radial flow. Then, the Palmer et al. (in: International coalbed methane symposium, Tuscaloosa, 2007) absolute permeability model was used to characterize absolute permeability, so that the effects of relative permeability and absolute permeability changes can be isolated. Material balance equation (MBE) was also applied to derive water saturation. Therefore, the relative permeability curve can be derived by combination of flow equations, Palmer et al. (2007) absolute permeability model and MBE based on real field production data. In addition, relative permeability curves of producing wells from different zones of the Zhengzhuang area were compared and the possible reason for the difference was also discussed. The work presented here can provide a useful and practical instruction for the derivation of relative permeability of China’s CBM wells.
相似文献Pseudo-reservoir stimulation in horizontal well is an effective technique for indirectly extracting coalbed methane (CBM) in soft coal from the surrounding rocks (pseudo-reservoir). However, systematic studies of the theory and on-site application of this technique are still lacking, which severely hinders its application. In this paper, the technical principles of pseudo-reservoir stimulation are analyzed firstly, and then, the technical advantages are demonstrated by experimental tests and theoretical analysis. The results show that the pseudo-reservoir generally possesses considerable gas adsorption capacity, with the gas content of 1.56–4.22 cm3/g (avg. 2.51 cm3/g) in Well XC-01, which can be extracted as supplementary resources. The fracability of the pseudo-reservoirs is 0.73–0.92, which is much higher than that of the coal seam, i.e., 0.03–0.43. Meanwhile, the compressive and tensile strength and cohesion of the pseudo-reservoir are higher than those of the coal seam, indicating pseudo-reservoir stimulation is more conducive to forming fracture network, and maintaining wellbore stability and fracture conductivity. The technical feasibility of pseudo-reservoir stimulation is determined by the regional geological conditions, showing simple tectonic conditions and well-developed surrounding rocks with high fracability and mechanical strength but low permeability, water sensitivity and water content are beneficial for the technique application. Note that the fracture conductivity in pseudo-reservoir is more stable and higher than that in coal seam, pseudo-reservoir stimulation is beneficial for the CBM extraction from both hard and soft coal seams. By minimizing the gas diffusion distance, this technique overcomes the technical obstacles to the CBM commercialized production in soft coal.
相似文献With increasing demands for coal resources, coal has been gradually mined in deep coal seams. Due to high gas content, pressure and in situ stress, deep coal seams show great risks of coal and gas outburst. Protective coal seam mining, as a safe and effective method for gas control, has been widely used in major coal-producing countries in the world. However, at present, the relevant problems, such as gas seepage characteristics and optimization of gas drainage borehole layout in protective coal seam mining have been rarely studied. Firstly, by combining with formulas for measuring and testing permeability of coal and rock mass in different stress regimes and failure modes in the laboratory, this study investigated stress–seepage coupling laws by using built-in language Fish of numerical simulation software FLAC3D. In addition, this research analyzed distribution characteristics of permeability in a protected coal seam in the process of protective coal seam mining. Secondly, the protected coal seam was divided into a zone with initial permeability, a zone with decreasing permeability, and permeability increasing zones 1 and 2 according to the changes of permeability. In these zones, permeability rises the most in the permeability increasing zone 2. Moreover, by taking Shaqu Coal Mine, Shanxi Province, China as an example, layout of gas drainage boreholes in the protected coal seam was optimized based on the above permeability-based zoning. Finally, numerical simulation and field application showed that gas drainage volume and concentration rise significantly after optimizing borehole layout. Therefore, when gas is drained through boreholes crossing coal seams during the protective coal seam mining in other coal mines, optimization of borehole layout in Shaqu Coal Mine has certain reference values.
相似文献Characterization of coal micro-structure and the associated rock mechanical properties are of key importance for coal seam exploration, coal bed methane development, enhanced coal bed methane production and CO2 storage in deep coal seams. Considerable knowledge exists about coal chemical properties, but less is known about the nanoscale to the micro-scale structure of coals and how they change with coal strength across coal ranks. Thus, in this study, 3D X-ray micro-computed tomography (with a voxel size of 3.43 µm) and nano-indentation tests were conducted on coal samples of different ranks from peat to anthracite. The micro-structure of peats showed a well-developed pore system with meso- and micro-pores. The meso-pores essentially disappear with increasing rank, whereas the micro-pores persist and then increase past the bituminous rank. The micro-fracture system develops past the peat stage and by sub-bituminous ranks and changes into larger and mature fracture systems at higher ranks. The nano-indentation modulus showed the increasing trend from low- to high-rank coal with a perfect linear relationship with vitrinite reflectance and is highly correlated with carbon content as expected.
相似文献Due to high gas content, high geo-stress and complex geological conditions, gas disasters occur frequently in deep coal mining. The hard thick roof (HTR) greatly increases the difficulty of coalbed gas control besides causing dynamic disasters. In this paper, the effects of HTR on gas migration were numerically analyzed based on a multi-field coupling model. Results indicated that the hanging arch leads to remarkable stress concentration and induces a “cap-shaped” low-permeable zone above the gob, which greatly prevents gas from migrating upwards. Meanwhile, HTR hinders the subsidence movements of the upper rock strata, contributing to very few roof fractures and bed-separated fractures. Without the formation of roof-fractured zone, coalbed gas completely loses the possibility of upward concentration and will accumulate in the gob, forming a major safety hazard. To overcome these problems, borehole artificially guided pre-splitting (BAGP) technology was proposed. Three different pre-splitting boreholes were constructed as a group to generate artificial fractures in advance in HTR via deep-hole blasting, promoting the evolution of roof fractures. With the effects of mining stress, a fracture network is eventually formed in HTR, which provides a preferential passage for the upward flow of coalbed gas. Moreover, the controllable breaking of HTR was achieved and the roof strata could deform and subside regularly, forming an “O-shaped” roof-fractured zone above the gob which greatly improves the gas extraction efficiency of roof high-level boreholes. In addition, after BAGP, several extraction measures can be applied in the gob-side entry to drain the gas in different concentrated areas. In the field experiment, the roof periodic breaking length was reduced by half, and the average gas extraction rate was increased by 4 times to 67.7%. The synergetic controls of HTR and coalbed gas were effectively realized. This study provides valuable insight into gas control in other deep coal mines with similar geological conditions.
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