Petrophysical and Capillary Properties of Compacted Salt

This paper reports experimental results that demonstrate petrophysical and capillary characteristics of compacted salt. The measured data include porosity, gas permeability, pore size distribution, specific surface area, and gas-brine breakthrough and capillary pressure. Salt samples employed in the experiments were prepared by compacting sodium chloride granulates at high stresses for several hours. They represent an intermediate consolidation stage of crushed salt under in-situ conditions. The porosity and permeability of compacted salt showed similar trends to those expected in backfilled regions of waste repositories excavated in salt rock. The correlation between the measured porosity and permeability seems to be independent of the compaction parameters for the range examined in this study. The correlation also shows a different behaviour from that of rock salt. The data of all petrophysical properties show that the pore structure of compacted salt can be better characterized by fracture permeability models rather than capillary bundle ones. Simple creep tests, conducted on the fully-brine-saturated compacted salt samples, yielded similar strain rates to those obtained by a steady-state mechanical model developed from the tests on fully brine-saturated granular salt. A modified procedure is proposed for the evaluation of restored-state capillary pressure data influenced by the material creep. The characteristic parameters for the capillary behaviour of compacted salt are determined by matching the Brooks-Corey and van Genuchten models with the measured data. The Leverett functions determined with different methods agree well.