The effective stress and types of particles significantly
affect
the permeability of hydrate sediments. In this study, effects of hydrate
saturation, hydrate decomposition, effective stress, and particle
type on gas permeability and sample deformation of montmorillonite
samples and quartz-montmorillonite mixtures were investigated. The
results showed that the gas phase permeability increased with hydrate
formation. In addition, the decline of sample porosity is the fundamental
factor determining the permeability failure rate under effective stress.
During methane hydrate decomposition by depressurization, the compression
coefficient of samples increases with decreasing pore pressure, which
means that decomposing natural gas hydrate makes experimental samples
more sensitive to stress. Furthermore, the addition of sand particles
significantly affects the compressibility of sediments. In addition,
because of the decline of sample porosity and the swelling of montmorillonite,
the results of gas permeability show a downward trend when the pore
pressure decreases during the decomposition of methane hydrate. Gas
permeability of the sample ranges from a few millidarcies to several
hundred millidarcies. Furthermore, the content of clay and the particle
size in the sample are the key factors in determining the permeability
damage rate when the stress increases during decomposition of methane
hydrate. Therefore, the addition of quartz sand can reduce damage
of gas permeability of sediments caused by effective stress and hydrate
decomposition.