A água é um bem necessário a toda a humanidade, à agricultura e às indústrias. É o bem mais escasso atualmente e será muito mais nos próximos anos. A proteção dos recursos hídricos para garantia do bem-estar da humanidade torna-se essencial e com isto a restauração florestal de nascentes e áreas ciliares é alvo de projetos em todo o mundo. As áreas hidrologicamente sensíveis (AHS) dentro da bacia hidrográfica são as porções mais importantes neste contexto, no entanto, devido à saturação hídrica do solo ocasionada pela dinâmica do lençol freático, a sua recuperação é dificultada desestimulando pesquisas e ações de restauração. Diante desta lacuna, este estudo teve o objetivo de buscar estratégias para a restauração florestal de AHS. Para isso foi testado em viveiro a tolerância a diferentes níveis de saturação hídrica de 15 espécies típicas de ambientes alagados e uma espécie não típica como controle. As espécies foram avaliadas quanto ao crescimento em altura, diâmetro à altura do solo, sobrevivência, desenvolvimento de respostas morfológicas e possível associação destas com as taxas de crescimento. Foi feita uma análise de agrupamento que classificou e agrupou as espécies de acordo com cinco níveis de tolerância ao alagamento, identificando que para a maioria das espécies quanto maior o nível de saturação hídrica menor é a tolerância a este estresse. A análise de variância e o teste de Tukey identificaram quais espécies apresentaram características morfológicas (hipertrofia de lenticelas e raízes adventícias) e os indicadores morfológicos foram comparados nos grupos constituídos da análise de agrupamento que revelou que estas respostas estão associadas à adaptação quanto ao crescimento e sobrevivência das espécies. Dois experimentos em campo também foram realizados visando testar métodos de preparo de solo que mais favorecessem o estabelecimento e o crescimento inicial das espécies. Foi feita uma análise de variância e teste de Tukey para testar se o método de preparo de solo tem efeito sobre o crescimento em altura e diâmetro e o tempo de sobrevivência para as espécies e uma análise de agrupamento para definir grupos de espécies com características funcionais que favoreçam os projetos de restauração. Verificou-se que os métodos de preparo de solo não foram determinantes para o estabelecimento e desenvolvimento das espécies típicas de AHS em pequenas escalas e que a escolha das espécies mais tolerantes à saturação hídrica em diferentes níveis é o fator mais importante na restauração desses ambientes. Desta forma, em projetos de restauração de florestas brejosas, a seleção de espécies adaptadas a estas condições é mais importante do que os métodos de preparo do solo, e futuros estudos deveriam focar em identificar grupos funcionais de espécies que possam ser usadas nestes projetos. / From agriculture to the industry, water is an essential resource for humanity. It is also the scarcest resource at the present time and it will be scarcer in the next years. The protection of water resources is of most importance to ensure humanity\'s well-being. Thus, projects aiming at the restoration of springs and riparian forests are being carried out around the world. In this context, hydrologically sensitive areas (HSA) of the river basins are the most important sites for water resources provision. However, water table dynamics causes water saturation of the soil in these areas, imposing barriers to recuperation and discouraging restoration practice and research. In this context, this study aims to analyze strategies for the ecological restoration of HSA. We carried out nursery tests to assess the hydrological saturation tolerance of 15 tree species typical from wetlands and used a non-typical species as control. Species were evaluated based on height and diameter at soil height increase, survival, development of morphological responses and the possible relation of the latter with growth rates. The cluster analysis classified species in groups based on five hydrological saturation tolerance levels, pointing that, for most species, higher hydrological saturation levels results in lower tolerance to this stress. An analysis of variance and Tukey test identified which species presented morphological characteristics (lenticels hypertrophy and adventitious roots) and the morphological indicators were compared among the clustered groups; this analysis demonstrated that such morphological responses are associated to the species adaptation for both survival and growth in saturated conditions. Two field experiments were also carried out aiming to test soil preparation that could favor seedling establishment and growth. An analysis of variance and Tukey test was carried out to test the effects of soil preparation on seedling height and diameter at soil height growth and survival. Additionally, we carried out a cluster analysis to separate species into groups containing functional characteristics that may favor restoration projects. We observed that soil preparation techniques, in small scale, had no influence on the establishment and development of seedlings typical of HSA and that the selection of species that are tolerant to hydrological saturation at different levels is the most important factor for restoration of these environments. Thus, restoration projects in wetlands should give special attention for the selection of species adapted to these conditions, which is more determinant for restoration success than soil preparation. Future studies should focus in identifying species functional groups that could be used to restore these areas.

Nesta pesquisa foram estudadas morfologias e posições do relevo que apresentam solos e depósitos com regimes hídricos caracterizados pela saturação temporária ou permanente, tendo os seguintes objetivos: (i) caracterização dos solos e depósitos presentes no setor inferior de vertentes e em fundos de vale, incluindo planícies fluviais, com ênfase em suas propriedades hidromórficas; (ii) identificação de graus de hidromorfia nos solos e depósitos desses setores e morfologias, e representação de sua variabilidade espacial; (iii) elaboração de proposições a respeito do regime de saturação hídrica nos setores estudados e de sua relação com os graus de hidromorfia identificados; (iv) elaboração de proposições sobre tendências espaciais hidrodinâmicas associadas à inundação fluvial nas áreas de planície. Sob o aspecto metodológico, a pesquisa foi desenvolvida de acordo com os princípios da abordagem geossistêmica, apresentando uma análise integrada que buscou identificar as inter-relações entre as variáveis pesquisadas. Para tal estudo, foram selecionados dois perfis transversais na Alta Bacia Hidrográfica do Rio Cotia, que abrangeram o setor inferior de vertentes e fundos de vale, um deles com planície fluvial. Ao longo desses perfis transversais foram realizados os seguintes levantamentos e procedimentos: (i) levantamento morfométrico e construção de gráficos dos perfis; (ii) descrição dos atributos morfológicos dos solos e depósitos; (iii) monitoramento dos níveis dágua do lençol freático ou lençol suspenso nos pontos de descrição. A caracterização e análise detalhadas das propriedades hidromórficas revelaram gradações de intensidade nas mesmas, e, a partir dessa base, desenvolveu-se uma proposta para classificação dos solos e depósitos segundo graus de hidromorfia. Foram construídas representações gráficas bidimensionais que ilustraram a sucessão vertical e lateral de horizontes pedogenéticos e camadas com diferentes graus de hidromorfia ao longo dos setores e morfologias estudadas. Desta maneira, foram identificadas tendências gerais no que se refere à distribuição espacial dos graus de hidromorfia e à relação desses graus com o regime de saturação hídrica. Um dos padrões identificados consistiu no aumento do grau de hidromorfia dos perfis verticais de solos e depósitos com o aumento da profundidade, que está associado a um maior tempo de duração das condições de saturação hídrica nos horizontes mais profundos. Também foram observadas diferenças significativas na intensidade das propriedades hidromórficas das vertentes, quando comparadas às áreas de fundos de vale, incluindo a planície fluvial. Neste sentido, foram identificados graus de hidromorfia mais baixos nos horizontes A e B dos pontos localizados nas vertentes, e graus mais elevados nos horizontes A e B dos pontos localizados nos fundos de vale. Essas diferenças na ocorrência dos graus de hidromorfia foram atribuídas a distintos regimes de saturação hídrica, sendo que, de maneira geral, os horizontes pedogenéticos e as camadas com graus de hidromorfia elevados estão sujeitos a condições de saturação hídrica de maior duração ou permanentes, quando comparados àqueles que possuem graus de hidromorfia mais baixos, nos quais os eventos de saturação hídrica tem menor duração e/ou ocorrem com menor frequência. Com relação às proposições referentes à inundação fluvial na planície estudada, foram identificadas morfologias que recebem preferencialmente os fluxos fluviais da inundação e apresentam taxas de deposição mais elevadas, e setores com taxas de deposição mais baixas nos quais a inundação é menos frequente e há predomínio da deposição de sedimentos finos. / In this research we studied morphologies and relief positions with soils and deposits with moisture regimes characterized by temporary or permanent water saturation, with the following objectives: (i) characterization of soils and deposits located in lower slope sectors and valley bottoms, with an emphasis on their hydromorphic properties; (ii) identification of degrees of hydromorphy in the soils and deposits of these sectors and morphologies, and representation of their spatial variability; (iii) development of propositions about the regime of water saturation in the studied areas and its relationship with the degrees of hydromorphy; (iv) development of propositions about the hydrodynamics of floods in the studied floodplain. Regarding the methodological aspect, the research was conducted according to the principles of the geosystemic approach, presenting an integrated analysis which considered the inter-relations among the studied variables. For this study, we selected two cross profiles in the Cotia Drainage Basin, comprising lower slope sectors and valley bottoms, including a floodplain. Along these cross profiles, the following surveys were conducted: (i) topographic survey and construction of cross section graphics; (ii) description of the morphological attributes of soils and deposits, including detailed description of their hydromorphic properties; (iii) monitoring the water levels of the water table and perched water tables in the sites of description. The detailed characterization and analysis of the hydromorphic properties revealed gradations of intensity in them, and, based primarily on this, we developed a proposal for classification the soils and deposits of the study area according to degrees of hydromorphy. We built two-dimensional graphical representations which illustrated vertical and lateral successions of pedogenetic horizons or layers with different degrees of hydromorphy. Thus, general trends were identified in respect to the spatial distribution of the degrees of hydromorphy and in respect to its relationship with the regime of water saturation. One of the patterns identified consisted in the increase of the degree of hydromorphy in the soil profiles with increasing depth, associated with a longer duration of water saturation conditions in the deeper horizons. It were also observed significant differences in the intensity of the hydromorphic properties of the slopes, when compared to the valley bottom areas, including the floodplain. In this regard, lower degrees of hydromorphy were identified in the A and B horizons in the slope sectors, and higher degrees in the A and B horizons in the valley bottom areas. Such differences in the degree of hydromorphy were ascribed to distinct regimes of water saturation, considering that, in general, the horizons and layers with higher degrees of hydromorphy are subject to water saturation conditions of longer duration, when compared to those classified according to lower degrees of hydromorphy, in which the water saturation events have shorter duration and/or have lower frequency. Concerning the propositions about the hydrodynamics of floods in the studied floodplain, we identified morphologies that preferentially receive the overflowing river flows and have higher deposition rates, and sectors with lower deposition rates, where flooding is less frequent and there is a predominance of fine sediments deposition.

Ce travail de thèse consiste à identifier les propriétés pétrophysiques et de transfert de roches provenant d’un réservoir de grès « tight » en Afrique du nord exploité par ENGIE EPI. Il s’agit d’identifier les liens entre les propriétés de transfert, les propriétés poro-mécanique, la sensibilité au chargement mécanique ou à la saturation en eau, et quelques indicateurs comme la porosité, la distribution des tailles de pores, la perméabilité intrinsèque, les caractéristiques pétrographiques etc. Le but est de pouvoir prédire le comportement de matériaux différents de ceux étudiés dans cette thèse, en utilisant des données d’entrée « facilement » accessibles, fournissant ainsi des outils permettant d’évaluer la qualité d’un nouveau réservoir sans passer par une caractérisation exhaustive, longue et couteuse du matériau constituant ce réservoir / This work of thesis focuses on the identification of the petrophysical and transfer properties of rocks originating from a tight sandstone reservoir in North Africa operated by ENGIE EPI. It needs to identify the links between the transfer properties, poro-mechanical properties, sensitivity to mechanical loading or water saturation, and some indications such as porosity, pore size distribution, intrinsic permeability, petrographic features etc. The aim is to predict the behavior of materials that are different from those that studied in this thesis by using the “easily” accessible input data, providing tools for evaluating the quality of a new reservoir without passing through an exhaustive, long and expensive characterization of the material forming this reservoir.

CO2 sequestration is a promising strategy to reduce the emissions of CO2 concentration in the atmosphere, to enhance hydrocarbon production, and/or to extract geothermal heat. The target formations can be deep saline aquifers, abandoned or depleted hydrocarbon reservoirs, and/or coal bed seams or even deep oceanic waters. Thus, the potential formations for CO2 sequestration and EOR (enhanced oil recovery) projects can vary broadly in pressure and temperature conditions from deep and cold where CO2 can exist in a liquid state to shallow and warm where CO2 can exist in a gaseous state, and to deep and hot where CO2 can exist in a supercritical state. The injection, transport and displacement of CO2 in these formations involves the flow of CO2 in subsurface rocks which already contain water and/or oil, i.e. multiphase flow occurs. Deepening our understanding about multiphase flow characteristics will help us building models that can predict multiphase flow behaviour, designing sequestration and EOR programmes, and selecting appropriate formations for CO2 sequestration more accurately. However, multiphase flow in porous media is a complex process and mainly governed by the interfacial interactions between the injected CO2, formation water, and formation rock in host formation (e.g. interfacial tension, wettability, capillarity, and mass transfer across the interface), and by the capillary , viscous, buoyant, gravity, diffusive, and inertial forces; some of these forces can be neglected based on the rock-fluid properties and the configuration of the model investigated. The most influential forces are the capillary ones as they are responsible for the entrapment of about 70% of the total oil in place, which is left behind primary and secondary production processes. During CO2 injection in subsurface formations, at early stages, most of the injected CO2 (as a non-wetting phase) will displace the formation water/oil (as a wetting phase) in a drainage immiscible displacement. Later, the formation water/oil will push back the injected CO2 in an imbibition displacement. Generally, the main concern for most of the CO2 sequestration projects is the storage capacity and the security of the target formations, which directly influenced by the dynamic of CO2 flow within these formations. Any change in the state of the injected CO2 as well as the subsurface conditions (e.g. pressure, temperature, injection rate and its duration), properties of the injected and present fluids (e.g. brine composition and concentration, and viscosity and density), and properties of the rock formation (e.g. mineral composition, pore size distribution, porosity, permeability, and wettability) will have a direct impact on the interfacial interactions, capillary forces and viscous forces, which, in turn, will have a direct influence on the injection, displacement, migration, storage capacity and integrity of CO2. Nevertheless, despite their high importance, investigations have widely overlooked the impact of CO2 the phase as well as the operational conditions on multiphase characteristics during CO2 geo-sequestration and CO2 enhanced oil recovery processes. In this PhD project, unsteady-state drainage and imbibition investigations have been performed under a gaseous, liquid, or supercritical CO2 condition to evaluate the significance of the effects that a number of important parameters (namely CO2 phase, fluid pressure, temperature, salinity, and CO2 injection rate) can have on the multiphase flow characteristics (such as differential pressure profile, production profile, displacement efficiency, and endpoint CO2 effective (relative) permeability). The study sheds more light on the impact of capillary and viscous forces on multiphase flow characteristics and shows the conditions when capillary or viscous forces dominate the flow. Up to date, there has been no such experimental data presented in the literature on the potential effects of these parameters on the multiphase flow characteristics when CO2 is injected into a gaseous, liquid, or supercritical state. The first main part of this research deals with gaseous, liquid, and supercritical CO2- water/brine drainage displacements. These displacements have been conducted by injecting CO2 into a water or brine-saturated sandstone core sample under either a gaseous, liquid or supercritical state. The results reveal a moderate to considerable impact of the fluid pressure, temperature, salinity and injection rate on the differential pressure profile, production profile, displacement efficiency, and endpoint CO2 effective (relative) permeability). The results show that the extent and the trend of the impact depend significantly on the state of the injected CO2. For gaseous CO2-water drainage displacements, the results showed that the extent of the impact of the experimental temperature and CO2 injection rate on multiphase flow characteristics, i.e. the differential pressure profile, production profile (i.e. cumulative produced volumes), endpoint relative permeability of CO2 (KrCO2) and residual water saturation (Swr) is a function of the associated fluid pressure. This indicates that for formations where CO2 can exist in a gaseous state, fluid pressure has more influence on multiphase flow characteristics in comparison to other parameters investigated. Overall, the increase in fluid pressure (40-70 bar), temperature (29-45 °C), and CO2 injection rate (0.1-2 ml/min) caused an increase in the differential pressure. The increase in differential pressure with increasing fluid pressure and injection rate indicate that viscous forces dominate the multi-phase flow. Nevertheless, increasing the differential pressure with temperature indicates that capillary forces dominate the multi-phase flow as viscous forces are expected to decrease with this increasing temperature. Capillary forces have a direct impact on the entry pressure and capillary number. Therefore, reducing the impact of capillary forces with increasing pressure and injection rate can ease the upward migration of CO2 (thereby, affecting the storage capacity and integrity of the sequestered CO2) and enhance displacement efficiency. On the other hand, increasing the impact of the capillary force with increasing temperature can result in a more secure storage of CO2 and a reduction in the displacement efficiency. Nevertheless, the change in pressure and temperature can also have a direct impact on storage capacity and security of CO2 due to their impact on density and hence on buoyancy forces. Thus, in order to decide the extent of change in storage capacity and security of CO2 with the change in the above-investigated parameters, a qualitative study is required to determine the size of the change in both capillary forces and buoyancy forces. The data showed a significant influence of the capillary forces on the pressure and production profiles. The capillary forces produced high oscillations in the pressure and production profiles while the increase in viscous forces impeded the appearance of these oscillations. The appearance and frequency of these oscillations depend on the fluid pressure, temperature, and CO2 injection rate but to different extents. The appearance of the oscillations can increase CO2 residual saturation due to the re-imbibition process accompanied with these oscillations, thereby increasing storage capacity and integrity of the injected CO2. The differential pressure required to open the blocked flow channels during these oscillations can be useful in calculating the largest effective pore diameters and hence the sealing efficiency of the rock. Swr was in ranges of 0.38-0.42 while KrCO2 was found to be less than 0.25 under our experimental conditions. Increasing fluid pressure, temperature, and CO2 injection rate resulted in an increase in the KrCO2, displacement efficiency (i.e. a reduction in the Swr), and cumulative produced volumes. For liquid CO2-water drainage displacements, the increase in fluid pressure (60-70 bar), CO2 injection rate (0.4-1ml/min) and salinity (1% NaCl, 5% NaCl, and 1% CaCl2) generated an increase in the differential pressure; the highest increase occurred with increasing the injection rate and the lowest with increasing the salinity. On the other hand, on the whole, increasing temperature (20-29 °C) led to a reduction in the differential pressure apart from the gradual increase occurred at the end of flooding.

The productivity of most gas condensate wells is reduced significantly due to condensate banking when the bottom hole pressure falls below the dew point. The liquid drop-out in these very high rate gas wells may lead to low recovery problems. The most important parameter for determining condensate well productivity is the effective gas permeability in the near wellbore region, where very high velocities can occur. An understanding of the characteristics of the high-velocity gas-condensate flow and relative permeability data is necessary for accurate forecast of well productivity. In order to tackle this goal, a series of two-phase drainage relative permeability measurements on a moderate permeability North Marmara &ndash / 1 gas well carbonate core plug sample, using a simple synthetic binary retrograde condensate fluid sample were conducted under reservoir conditions which corresponded to near miscible conditions. As a fluid system, the model of methanol/n-hexane system was used as a binary model that exhibits a critical point at ambient conditions. The interfacial tension by means of temperature and the flow rate were varied in the laboratory measurements. The laboratory experiments were repeated for the same conditions of interfacial tension and flow rate at immobile water saturation to observe the influence of brine saturation in gas condensate systems. The laboratory experiment results show a clear trend from the immiscible relative permeability to miscible relative permeability lines with decreasing interfacial tension and increasing velocity. So that, if the interfacial tension is high and the flow velocity is low, the relative permeability functions clearly curved, whereas the relative permeability curves straighten as a linear at lower values of the interfacial tension and higher values of the flow velocity. The presence of the immobile brine saturation in the porous medium shows the same shape of behavior for relative permeability curves with a small difference that is the initial wetting phase saturations in the relative permeability curve shifts to the left in the presence of immobile water saturation. A simple new mathematical model is developed to compute the gas and condensate relative permeabilities as a function of the three-parameter. It is called as condensate number / NK so that the new model is more sensitivity to temperature that represents implicitly the effect of interfacial tension. The new model generated the results were in good agreement with the literature data and the laboratory test results. Additionally, the end point relative permeability data and residual saturations satisfactorily correlate with literature data. The proposed model has fairly good fitness results for the condensate relative permeability curves compared to that of gas case. This model, with typical parameters for gas condensates, can be used to describe the relative permeability behavior and to run a compositional simulation study of a single well to better understand the productivity of the field.

In this study, the influence of different water saturation achieved by different storage conditions on the static and dynamic compressive strength of three different concretes were investigated. The specimens were first dried then water-saturated and tested both under static and impact loading. The impact tests were carried out in a split Hopkinson bar. Depending on the concrete strength class, increases in the compressive strength of 200%–300% at strain rates in the range of 90–160 1/s were observed. Compared to storage under ambient conditions, the compressive strength decreases as a result of drying due to microcrack formation. Furthermore, the concretes compressive strengths of water-saturated specimens decrease compared to dry specimens. This decrease was observed under both static and impact loading and is independent of the strain rate. The failure of the dry specimens was more explosive with an increased number of cracks compared to water-saturated specimens.

Cette étude a pour but de documenter la relation qui existe entre les propriétés de transfert d’un matériau (répartition en taille de pores, porosité totale accessible à l’eau, saturation en eau), et son coefficient de diffusion. Pour cela, des matériaux ayant une porosité quasi-monomodale sont utilisés : verres Vycor® et géopolymères ; ainsi que des matériaux ayant une porosité complexe : pâtes de ciment CEM V. L’utilisation des verres Vycor® et des géopolymère permet de quantifier la diffusion gazeuse, en fonction de la saturation en eau, de matériaux ayant des pores de même dimension, ou du moins, de même ordre de grandeur. L’utilisation des pâtes de ciment permet quant à elle, de vérifier s’il est possible de décomposer le coefficient de diffusion d’un matériau dont la porosité est complexe, en un assemblage de coefficients de diffusion de matériaux dont la porosité est quasi-monomodale. Pour cela, on s’attachera à particulièrement à étudier l’impact de l’agencement du réseau poreux sur le coefficient de diffusion.Les travaux se décomposent en trois parties :• Etude des caractéristiques géométriques du réseau poreux des matériaux étudiés. Il sera utilisé la porosimétrie par intrusion de mercure, la porosimétrie à eau, des essais de sorption / désorption d’azote, et des essais de désorption d’eau.• Mesure expérimentale du coefficient de diffusion des matériaux, en fonction de leur humidité relative de stockage et de leur saturation en eau.• Modélisation du coefficient de diffusion des matériaux utilisés, et étude de l’impact de l’agencement de leur réseau poreux (tortuosité, connexion des pores entre eux) / This work documents the relationship that exists between the transfer properties of a material (pore size distribution, total porosity accessible to water, water saturation degree), and its diffusion coefficient. For this sake, materials having a quasi mono modal porosity are used: Vycor® glasses and geopolymers. We also use materials having a complex porosity: CEM V cement pastes. The use of Vycor® glasses and geopolymers allows quantifying the gas diffusion coefficient through materials having known pores size, as a function of their water saturation degree. The use of cement pastes allows checking if it is possible to decompose the diffusion coefficient of a complex porosity material, in an assembling of diffusion coefficients of quasi mono modal porosity materials. For this sake, the impact of pore network arrangement on the diffusion coefficient is studied in great details. This study is divided into three parts:• Measurement of the geometric characteristics of materials porous network by means of the mercury intrusion porosimetry, water porosimetry, isotherms of nitrogen sorption / desorption, and water desorption tests.• Measurement of the materials diffusion coefficient, as a function of their relative humidity storage, and their water saturation degree.• Modeling the diffusion coefficient of the materials, and study the impact of the pore network (tortuosity, pores connection)

Les réservoirs dits « tight gas » sont constitués de grès de faible perméabilité ayant des propriétés petro-physiques susceptibles de nuire à la productivité du gisement. Une importante zone de transition est observée in situ dans laquelle ni l’eau ni le gaz ne sont suffisamment mobiles pour permettre une extraction industrielle : c’est ce que l’on appellera le « permeability jail ». Cette étude vise principalement à caractériser l’influence du chargement mécanique (via l’utilisation de différentes pressions de confinement) et de la nature des roches (roches provenant de différents puits et prélevées à différentes profondeurs) sur les courbes de perméabilité relative au gaz et les caractéristiques poro-mécaniques de ces roches. La porosité accessible à l’eau mesurée est de 2 à 12%. La perméabilité intrinsèque au gaz a mis en évidence de fortes disparités sans lien avec la porosité des échantillons. Une grande sensibilité de la perméabilité relative au confinement a été observée dès l’application de pressions de confinement de 15 à 30 MPa. Deux familles d’échantillons ont ainsi été identifiées. Les échantillons les plus perméables (perméabilité compris entre 100 – 1000 μD), sont peu sensibles au confinement et leur perméabilité relative ne chute qu’à partir de saturations de l’ordre de 50%. Les échantillons les moins perméables apparaissent beaucoup plus sensibles à la fois au confinement et à la saturation.Des méthodes classiquement utilisées dans le domaine pétrolier reposant sur l’interprétation d’essais de porosimétrie par intrusion mercure, ont également été mise en œuvre pour évaluer les perméabilités relatives et les comparer aux mesures expérimentales / So-called tight gas reservoirs are constituted of low permeability sandstones, which petro-physical properties may interfere with proper gas recovery. They have a low absolute permeability (below 0.1 mD under ambient conditions), a porosity lower than 10%, and a strong sensitivity to in situ stresses as compared to conventional reservoirs. Moreover, an important transition zone is observed in situ, where partial water saturation is present, and which may extend over several hundred meters over the free water table. In such zone, where water saturation is on the order of 40-50%, neither gas nor water seems sufficiently mobile for industrial extraction: this is the permeability jail. Our aim is to assess their actual petro-physical properties, namely porosity, gas permeability under varying hydrostatic stress and water saturation level, in relation with sandstone microstructure. Accessible water porosity measured is between 2 to 12%. The intrinsic permeability to gas did not appeared related to the porosity of samples. A high sensitivity of gas permeability to confinement was observed. Two families of samples were identified. The more permeable samples (permeability between 100-1000 μD), are relatively insensitive to confinement and their relative permeability decrease for water saturation higher than 50%. Less permeable samples appear much more sensitive to mechanical loading and saturation.Methods classically used in oil and gas industry based on the interpretation of mercury intrusion porosimetry tests have also been used to evaluate relative permeability and compared with experimental measurements

Heavy oil production depends on the understanding of mechanical and flow properties of unconsolidated or weakly consolidated sands under different loading paths and boundary conditions. Reconstituted bitumen-free Athabasca oil-sands samples were used to investigate the geomechanics of a steam injection process such as the Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD). Four stress paths have been studied in this work: triaxial compression, radial extension, pore pressure increase and isotropic compression. Absolute permeability, end-point relative permeability to oil & water (kro and krw), initial water saturation and residual oil saturation were measured while the samples deformed. Triaxial compression is a stress path of increasing mean stress while radial extension and pore pressure increase lead to decreasing mean stress. Pore pressure increase experiments were carried out for three initial states: equal axial and confining stresses, axial stress greater than confining stress and confining stress greater than axial stress. Pore pressure was increased under four boundary conditions: 1) constant axial and confining stress; 2) constant axial stress and zero radial strain; 3) zero axial strain and constant confining stress; and 4) zero axial and radial strain. These experiments were designed to mimic geologic conditions where vertical stress was either S1 or S3, the lateral boundary conditions were either zero strain or constant stress, and the vertical boundary conditions were either zero strain or constant stress. Triaxial compression caused a decrease in permeability as the sample compacted, followed by appreciable permeability enhancement during sample dilation. Radial extension led to sample dilation, shear failure and permeability increase from the beginning. The krw and kro increased by 40% and 15% post-compaction respectively for the samples corresponding to lower depths during triaxial compression. For these samples, residual oil saturation decreased by as much as 40%. For radial extension, the permeability enhancement decreased with depth and ranged from 20% to 50% while the residual oil saturation decreased by up to 55%. For both stress paths, more shear-enhanced permeability was observed for samples tested at lower pressures, implying that permeability enhancement is higher for shallower sands. The pore pressure increase experiments showed an increase of only 0-10% in absolute permeability except when the effective stress became close to zero. This could possibly have occurred due to steady state flow not being reached during absolute permeability measurement. The krw curves generally increased as the pore pressure was increased from 0 psi. The increase ranged from 5% to 44% for the different boundary conditions and differential stresses. The kro curves also showed an increasing trend for most of the cases. The residual oil saturation decreased by 40-60% for samples corresponding to shallow depths while it increased by 0-10% for samples corresponding to greater depths. The reservoirs with high differential stress are more conducive to favorable changes in permeability and residual oil saturation. These results suggested that a decreasing mean stress path is more beneficial for production increase than an increasing mean stress path. The unconsolidated sands are over-consolidated because of previous ice loading which makes the sand matrix stiffer. In this work, it was found that over-consolidation, as expected, decreased the porosity and permeability (40-50%) and increased the Young’s and bulk moduli of the sand. The result is sand which failed at higher than expected stress during triaxial compression. Overall, results show that lab experiments support increased permeability due to steam injection operations in heavy oil, and more importantly, the observed reduction in residual oil saturation implies SAGD induced deformation should improve recovery factors. / text