Geomech. Geophys. Geo-energ. Geo-resour.

(2024) 10:82
https://doi.org/10.1007/s40948-024-00805-6

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Predicting the compressive strength of tight sandstone based

on the low field NMR and pseudo‑triaxial compression
measurements
Xinmin Ge · Renxia Zhang · Jianyu Liu ·
Yiren Fan · Michael Myers · Lori Hathon

Received: 13 June 2022 / Accepted: 10 January 2024

© The Author(s) 2024

Abstract The compressive strength is very impor- and the fluid existing state. Generally, the compres-
tant for petroleum and other engineering studies. sive strength is negatively correlated with the average
However, the effect of pore size and fluid distribu- transversal relaxation time, the movable water satura-
tion on the rock’s strength is not fully understood. tion, and the porosity, but positively correlated with
We developed comprehensive research to study the the irreducible water saturation. The result reveals
controlling factors of the compressive strength based that the rock with larger pore radius and higher per-
on low field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) centage of movable fluid is easier to reach the failure
measurements and pseudo-triaxial compression test state. Further, the precision of the empirical model
for tight sandstones. The relationship between the by multiple regression of the geometric mean of the
compressive strength and the NMR obtained param- relaxation time and the porosity is greatly improved
eters are investigated completely, aiming for a bet- compared with the model established by the brit-
ter estimation of the compressive strength using the tle minerals, which is potentially to be use for geo-
NMR data. The result shows that the rock’s strength physical prospecting when the NMR logging data is
is strongly controlled by the pore size distribution available.

Highlights
X. Ge (*) · R. Zhang · Y. Fan
State Key Laboratory of Deep Oil and Gas, China
University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, 1. The first time to use NMR to characterize the
China compressive strength.
e-mail: [email protected] 2. Pore size control on the rock mechanical property
X. Ge · Y. Fan is investigated.
Laboratory for Marine Mineral Resources, Qingdao 3. Empirical equation is established to predict the
Marine Science and Technology Center, Qingdao 266071, compressive strength.
China

J. Liu
Northwest Branch, Research Institute of Petroleum Keywords Compressive strength · Low field NMR
Exploration and Development, PetroChina, measurement · Pseudo-triaxial compression test ·
Lanzhou 730000, China Pore size · Fluid distribution · Tight sandstone
M. Myers · L. Hathon
Petroleum Engineering Department, University
of Houston, Houston 77204‑0945, USA

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1 Introduction compressive strength, and can be used to obtain the

compressive strength. These methods can be classi-
The compressive strength is defined as the resistance fied as: (1) Direct regressions with acoustic velocity,
to failure under the action of compressive forces. It is resistivity, density, as well as radioactive intensity
an essential geomechanical parameter in many areas (Chang 2004; Chang et al. 2006; Olea et al. 2008;
such as the exploration and development of miner- Sharma et al. 2010; Najibi et al. 2015; Xu et al. 2016;
als and fossil fuels, the evaluation of engineering Abbas et al. 2018); (2) Indirect regressions with some
disasters, the geotechnical investigation, as well as geological and formation parameters interpreted
the civil infrastructures such as urban underground from well logging data such as porosity, shale con-
spaces, nuclear facilities, tunnels, high-rise build- tent, water saturation, surface area, grain size, and
ings, and underground gas storage sites (Escartín elastic modulus (Talesnick et al. 2001; Agustawijaya
et al. 2008; Yagiz 2009; Huang et al. 2012; Gullu and 2007; Nadah et al. 2013; Dewhurst et al. 2015; Silva
Hazirbaba 2010; Haimson 2011; Kapang et al. 2013; et al. 2015; Kitamura and Hirose 2017; Yang et al.
Rabah et al. 2014; Rohmer et al. 2016; Wang et al. 2017; Farrokhrouz and Asef 2017; Hashiba et al.
2020). Although the laboratory uniaxial or triaxial 2019); (3) Statistical or machine learning techniques
point load measurements can provide reliable com- such as support vector regression, grey forecasting
pression strength data (Tsiambaos and Sabatakakis model, genetic algorithm, artificial neural network,
2004), are time consuming and expensive (Negara and gene expression programming (Rafiai and Jafari
et al. 2017). Therefore, it is imperative to finding 2011; Rabbani et al. 2012; Cabalar et al. 2012; Liu
an economic and convenient method to predict the et al. 2015; Zingg et al. 2016; Babanajad et al. 2017;
compressive strength at the in-situ condition. The Asadi 2017; Hassanvand et al. 2018; Vapnik et al.
prediction is difficult since they are too many influ- 2018; Kandiri et al. 2020). However, these methods
ential factors to be considered due to the fact that mentioned above have obvious deficiencies: (1) The
the rock is basically a poroelastic material, including empirical equations are developed in terms of specific
mineralogical compositions, diagenetic process, bed- study and rock type, which are strongly lithological
ding inclination, sedimentary environments, and pore dependent; (2) The precise petrophysical parameters
fluids (Meng et al. 2006; Forquin et al. 2010; Zhao such as porosity, mineral content, and surface area are
et al. 2012; Maleki and Bayat 2012; Pan et al. 2013; very difficult to obtain in unconventional formations
Luo et al. 2014; Zhong et al. 2014; Lisabeth and Zhu such as gas shale and tight sand; (3) The influence
2015; Ündül 2016; Dessouki et al. 2016; Peng et al. of the grain size, microstructure, pore geometry, and
2017; Fakir et al. 2017; Lou et al. 2018; Tang 2018; pore size distribution on the compress strength is still
Yin and Yang 2018; Wang et al. 2019; Gharechelou not completed investigated (Forquin et al. 2008; Heap
et al. 2020). Pseudo-triaxial compression test is an et al. 2014; Baud et al. 2014; Shen and Shao 2016;
experimental method that simulates the axisymmet- Bubeck et al. 2017; Griffiths et al. 2017; Farid et al.
ric stress state by applying radial and circumferential 2017).
stresses to replicate the stress conditions of under- NMR measurement uses the established CPMG
ground materials.This experimental method is highly pulse sequence to obtain the transverse ­T2 relaxation
valuable for investigating the mechanical properties time distribution. Provide sensitivity to pore geome-
of rocks. try or fluid phase (i.e. oil, brine and gas) when hydro-
The well logging data provides a reliable way to gen-containing liquid is present.The low field nuclear
reach the aim with respect to the drillability of a well magnetic resonance (NMR) technique is featured as
(Tokle et al. 1986; Onyia 1988; Khaksar et al. 2009; lithology-independent and non-invasive, which pro-
Kumar and Rao 2012). Previous studies showed that vides formation properties such as porosity, perme-
petrophysical properties such as electrical, acous- ability, fluid saturation, and pore size distribution.
tic, and radioactive parameters measured by down- The low field NMR measurement can be performed
hole well logging tools are related with the rock’s both in laboratory analysis and in field exploration.

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It is more convenient for the core-log calibration (Zhai et al. 2017; Yang et al. 2018; Li et al. 2019; Ge
compared with other pore geometry characteriza- et al. 2020). The aim of the research is to investigate
tion methods such as scanning electron microscopy the relationship between the pore size distribution
(SEM) and X-ray computed tomography (X-CT) (Lou and the compressive strength of the tight reservoir
et al. 2018; Heap et al. 2014; Farid et al. 2017; Yang using the NMR measurement, to recognize the contri-
et al. 2019). This method has been applied to study bution of different pore ranges on the rock’s strength
rock’s elastic properties, geomechanical behaviors, as characteristics. In additional, the conventional param-
well as the strength and deformation characteristics eters such as porosity, mineral content, static and
dynamic elastic modulus, as well as acoustic velocity

Fig. 1  Location, tectonic division and stratigraphic sequence division of the Triassic Yanchang Formation of Mahuangshan area in
the Ordos Basin

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 82 Page 4 of 21 Geomech. Geophys. Geo-energ. Geo-resour. (2024) 10:82

are also measured during the experiment. We hope they are crushed into powders for X-ray diffrac-
the research finding can provide more comprehen- tion (XRD) analysis by AXS D8 advance X-Ray
sive recognitions on the impact of the compressive diffractometer (Bruker Incorporation). Types and
strength besides the rock matrix. contents of minerals and clays can be extracted
easily.

2 Materials and experiments 2.2 Low field NMR measurement

2.1 Geological background and pretreatment We use MARAN-II ultra-rock spectrometer (Oxford

Instrument Incorporation) with an approximate
Mahuangshan area is belonged to the Yanchi main frequency of 2 MHz, to perform NMR meas-
County, Ningxia Hui autonomous region of China, urements. The experiments are conducted in CNPC
as seen in Fig. 1. It is located in the central Tian- key well logging laboratory. To ensure the maxi-
huan Depression of Ordos basin. Chang 6 Forma- mal acquisition of all hydrogen-related signals and
tion is the main oil production reservoir with the the data quality, the acquisition parameters are as
thickness ranges from 80 to 110 m. It is a typical follows: the waiting time is 6 s, the echo spacing
delta deposit, developed mainly with grey-green is 0.2 ms, the of scan number is 256, the receiv-
fine grain sandstone, siltstone, and dark mudstone. ing gain is 80%, and the echo number is 8192. The
12 samples from two wells are collected for our pulse sequence used is the conventional Carr-Pur-
experiments. These samples are reshaped and pol- cell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) pulse sequence. The
ished to cylindrical plungers with the diameter of measured decaying signals are then inverted into
approximate 2.5 cm and the length of 4.5–5 cm. the transversal relaxation ­(T2) spectrums with the
They are put in to an oil-cleaning instrument at WinDXP software package.
the temperature of 90 centigrade for 10 days to As is known, the low field NMR measures the
remove the remnants of the original fluids and the transversal relaxation of the spins in porous rocks,
invaded drilling mud. Then, they are moved to an where the total signal intensity or the spectrum
oven with the temperature and time of 95 centi- amplitude can be calibrated to the porosity of the
grade and 24 h, respectively, to ensure that there is sample. Details on the workflow of the calibration
no fluid in the pore space. We measure the density, were addressed in many articles (Ge et al. 2023; Xu
gas filled porosity, and gas permeability for these et al. 2015; Xiao et al. 2012). In our measurement,
dried samples. They are performed by XP205 we used the standard samples with known porosity
analytical balance, UltraPoreTM-300 helium pyc- values to establish the calibration equation between
nometer system (Corelab Incorporation), and the porosity and the normalized initial echo ampli-
UltraPeamTM-400 helium permeability system tude. Then, the porosity of the real core samples
(Corelab Incorporation). Next, they are saturated can be obtained conveniently. The linear calibration
with sodium chloride solution with the salinity equation is expressed as,
of 90 g/L, which is equivalent with the formation
water. It is performed by an auto-saturating con-
𝜙NMR = m × S + n (1)
tainer, with the saturating duration and confining where ϕNMR is the porosity calibrated by the NMR
pressure of 48 h and 20 MPa, to ensure the com- measurement; S is the normalized initial echo ampli-
pletely saturation state. The water saturated poros- tude by the CPMG pulse sequence; m and n are cali-
ity is obtained using the Archimedes’ principle. bration constants.
Acoustic velocities, NMR relaxation spectrums Besides the porosity, the cutoff value of the trans-
are conducted for fully saturated samples. NMR versal relaxation time (­ T2c) is also a very important
spectrums of irreducible water saturated samples parameter obtained by the low field NMR measure-
are also collected. They are saturated again to con- ment. It is generally used to divide the entire ­T2
duct the pseudo-triaxial compression test. Lastly,

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spectrum into two categories. The fluids in pores Incorporation) in CNPC key well logging laboratory.
with ­T2 value higher than ­T2c are movable and vice The confining pressure is 39 MPa, and the tempera-
versa. The parameter is often obtained by the com- ture is 30 degrees Celsius. The axial stress, axial strain
parison between the fully saturated ­ T2 spectrum and radial strain are recorded during the pressure load-
and the irreducible saturated T ­ 2 spectrum. details ing process. Therefore, the static elastic parameters
on the cutoff value were addressed by many authors such as Young’s modulus, the shear modulus, the bulk
(Ge et al. 2015; Chen et al. 2023; Testamanti and modulus, the Poisson’s ratio, as well as the compres-
Rezaee 2017).The bound water saturation in core sive strength can be computed by Chinese National
samples refers to the percentage of water in the rock Standard ‘Methods for determining the physical and
that is immobilized because it is trapped by the par- mechanical properties of coal and rock-Part 9: Methods
ticles or mineral surfaces of the rock. This portion for determining the triaxial strength and deformation
of water cannot flow freely and constitutes the non- parameters of coal and rock (GB/T 23561.9–2009).
mobile water within the total porosity. The movable The dynamic elastic parameters such as the Young’s
water in the core can be separated and only bound modulus, shear modulus, bulk modulus, Poisson’s ratio
water can be left in the core by centrifugal experi- are computed by the acoustic velocities and the density.
ment at a certain speed on the completely saturated There are expressed as follows,
water sample.Therefore, the bound water saturation ( )
can be calculated by the nuclear magnetic experi- 𝜌Vs2 3Vp2 − 4Vs2
ment data after completely saturated water and Ed = (2)
Vp2 − Vs2
centrifugation.

2.3 The pseudo‑triaxial compression and the acoustic Sd = 𝜌Vs2 (3)

measurement

The pseudo-triaxial compression tests were per-

formed by Autolab 1500 (New England Research

Table 1  Basic petrophysical parameters for these samples

Sample Gas porosity (%) Brine poros- NMR poros- Gas permeabil- Bulk density P wave veloc- S wave
number ity (%) ity (%) ity (mD) (g/cm3) ity (m/s) velocity
(m/s)

1 9.70 9.37 9.22 0.203 2.53 4539.34 2713.63

2 7.98 7.61 7.49 0.064 2.57 4821.23 3058.80
3 7.84 7.50 7.34 0.132 2.57 4787.07 2812.67
4 13.54 13.14 12.80 0.451 2.46 3956.63 2220.05
5 4.00 3.51 3.69 0.039 2.63 5126.37 3084.93
6 5.24 4.66 4.97 0.071 2.60 4940.54 2970.00
7 12.93 12.77 12.45 0.485 2.47 3959.90 2179.73
8 14.87 14.71 14.19 0.738 2.42 3924.70 2172.48
9 12.82 12.63 12.31 0.434 2.46 4123.54 2360.58
10 15.55 15.24 14.85 0.961 2.43 3874.83 2089.64
11 6.84 6.34 6.42 0.058 2.57 4960.92 2782.25
12 10.10 9.64 9.54 0.105 2.52 4560.25 2730.55

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10 20
Brined saturated porosity
NMR calibrated porosity

Brine filled /NMRporosity /%

15
Gas permeability /mD

10

0.1
5

0.01 0
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20

Gas filled porosity /% Gas filled porosity /%

(a) Porosity-permeability crossplot (b) Porosity comparison

6000 2.70
P wave
S wave
2.65

5000 2.60
Acoustic velocity /m/s

2.55
Bulk density /g/cm

4000 2.50

2.45

3000 2.40

2.35

2000 2.30
0 5 10 15 20 0 5 10 15 20
Gas filled porosity /% Gas filled porosity /%

(c) Porosity-acoustic velocity crossplot (c) Porosity-bulk density crossplot

Fig. 2  Porosity comparisons and their relationships with permeability, acoustic velocity, and density

3 Results and discussion

( )
3Vs2
Vd = 𝜌 Vp2 − (4)
4
3.1 Basic petrophysical properties

Vp2 − 2Vs2 The basic petrophysical parameters are shown in

Pd = [ ] (5) Table 1 and Fig. 2. It is seen that the gas filled poros-
2 (Vp2 − Vs2 ) ity ranges from 4% to 15.55%, and the gas perme-
ability ranges from 0.04mD to 0.96mD, lower than
where Vp and Vs are compressive velocity and shear conventional reservoirs. The permeability is generally
velocity, respectively; ρ is the density of the rock. increased with the porosity, but simple regression is

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12 Cl 12 Ch
11 Py 11 K
D I
10 10
C I/S
9 P 9
Sample Number

Sample Number
8 F 8
7
Q 7
6 6
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20
Mineral content /% Clay content /%

(a) Distribution of minerals (b) Distribution of clays

Fig. 3  Distribution of minerals and clays observed by XRD analysis (Q quartz, F K-feldspar, P plagioclase, C calcite, D dolomite,
Py pyrite, Cl clay, I/S illite–smectite mixed layer, I illite, K kaolinite, Ch chlorite)

Table 2  Mineralogical composition for these samples

Sample Quartz (%) K-feldspar (%) Plagioclase (%) Calcite (%) Dolomite (%) Clay (%) Pyrite (%)
number

1 25.40 9.40 32.70 4.80 7.90 19.90 –

2 25.40 11.10 36.60 4.60 6.10 16.20 –
3 21.80 7.30 41.30 3.80 7.60 18.20 –
4 19.90 10.00 48.60 2.30 7.60 11.60 –
5 36.30 3.60 23.70 28.50 1.60 6.30 –
6 31.40 3.90 19.30 26.90 5.30 13.20 –
7 27.00 22.70 30.70 – 3.30 16.30 –
8 21.60 11.00 53.30 – – 14.20 –
9 55.40 1.40 33.40 4.60 – 5.20 –
10 20.30 7.10 67.50 – – 5.10 –
11 20.40 15.20 40.50 10.30 – 12.50 1.10
12 32.70 7.70 32.80 1.90 5.60 19.40 –

difficult to fitting the permeability. The brine satu- Figure 3 gives the absolute content of miner-
rated porosity, NMR calibrated porosity is generally als and clays observed by XRD analysis. It is seen
in accordance with the gas filled porosity, indicat- that the rock matrix is mainly composed by quartz,
ing that the pores are fully saturated with water and K-feldspar, plagioclase, and clay, but their contents
good performance of NMR measurements. In addi- vary broadly. Moreover, the clay is mainly com-
tional, the compressive wave (P wave) velocity, the posed by illite–smectite mixed layer and chlorite.
shear wave (P wave) velocity, and the bulk density Due to the heterogeneous development of these min-
show favorable linear relationships with the porosity, erals, it is difficult to obtain their contents and spa-
indicating that the velocity and density for the rock tial distribution via conventional well logging data.
matrix is stable. The detailed experiment results of the mineralogical

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Table 3  Absolute clay Sample Illite–smectite Illite (%) Kaolinite (%) Chlorite (%) Illite/
composition for these number mixed layer (%) smectite
samples ratio

1 5.97 1.59 3.98 8.36 10

2 5.35 1.62 3.73 5.51 10
3 6.55 1.27 3.82 6.55 10
4 2.20 0.35 5.22 3.83 10
5 1.95 0.82 2.39 1.13 10
6 5.02 0.66 1.98 5.54 10
7 10.43 2.28 0.98 2.61 10
8 2.41 0.43 6.53 4.83 10
9 – – – – –
10 0.42 0.10 1.87 2.81 10
11 1.53 0.20 0.56 2.81 10
12 3.88 1.16 5.24 9.12 10

and clay distributions are shown in Tables 2 and 3,

�
� p
p
respectively.
�� f
(6)
∑
fi
T2gm = i=1� T2ii
i=1
3.2 NMR ­T2 spectrums
∑p
T2i fi
Figure 4 show NMR spectrums for samples at differ- i=1
T2am = ∑ p (7)
ent saturating states. It is seen that most spectrums for f
i=1 i
fully water saturated samples are mono-modal distrib-
where fi is the amplitude for the corresponding T2i; p
uted but the peak position ranges from 4 to 100 ms.
is the total number of the ­T2 spectrum.
The shape of spectrums for irreducible water saturated
Physically, the geometric mean is used to describe
samples is similar to fully water saturated samples and
the concentration degree of the ­T2 spectrum and the
the left part remains unaltered, whereas the right part is
arithmetic mean is used to describe the average posi-
decreased. It is easy to interpret since the low relaxation
tion of the ­T2 spectrum (Xiao et al. 2018).
time is corresponded to the small pore radius. Table 4
summarized the geometric mean (­T2gm) and the arith-
metic mean ­(T2am) of fully water saturated and irreduc-
3.3 Geomechanical behaviors
ible water saturated samples, the cutoff value (­ T2c), the
movable water saturation (Swm), as well as the irreduc-
Figure 5 show the time-dependent axial stress, the
ible water saturation (Swi). We can conclude that T ­ 2am
axial strain, the radial strain, and the volumetric strain
is positively correlated with T ­ 2gm for samples under
of samples during the pressure loading stage. It is
the fully saturated state. However, there is no obvious
seen that the stress–strain response is complicated.
correlation between ­T2am and T ­ 2gm for samples under
Some samples with similar petrohysical properties
the irreducible water saturated state. ­T2c is generally
and mineralogical compositions behave significant
lower than 13 ms and ranges from 3 to 13 ms, revealing
differences in geomechanical properties. Table 3 and
that a dynamic value is more reasonable.
Fig. 6 summarizes the static and dynamic geome-
It is should be noted that both the geometric mean
chanical parameters and their interrelationships for
­(T2gm) and the arithmetic mean (­T2am) are expressed
these samples obtained from stress–strain relation-
as,
ships and acoustic measurements. It is observed that

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0.6 0.6
Fully saturated state Fully saturated state
Irreducible saturated state Irreducible saturated state
0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4
Porosity fraction /%

Porosity fraction /%
0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0.0 0.0
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000

T2 /ms T2 /ms

(a) Sample No 1 (b) Sample No 2

0.6 0.6
Fully saturated state Fully saturated state
Irreducible saturated state Irreducible saturated state
0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4
Porosity fraction /%

Porosity fraction /%

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0.0 0.0
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
T2 /ms T2 /ms

(c) Sample No 3 (d) Sample No 4

0.6 0.6
Fully saturated state Fully saturated state
Irreducible saturated state Irreducible saturated state
0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4
Porosity fraction /%

Porosity fraction /%

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0.0 0.0
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
T2 /ms T2 /ms

(e) Sample No 5 (f) Sample No 6

Fig. 4  NMR ­T2 spectrums for samples under the fully water saturated state and the irreducible water saturated state

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0.6 0.6
Fully saturated state Fully saturated state
Irreducible saturated state Irreducible saturated state
0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4

Porosity fraction /%
Porosity fraction /%

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0.0
0.0 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
T2 /ms
T2 /ms

(g) Sample No 7 (h) Sample No 8

0.6 0.6
Fully saturated state Fully saturated state
Irreducible saturated state Irreducible saturated state
0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4
Porosity fraction /%
Porosity fraction /%

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0.0 0.0
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
T2 /ms T2 /ms

(i) Sample No 9 (j) Sample No 10

0.6 0.6
Fully saturated state Fully saturated state
Irreducible saturated state Irreducible saturated state
0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4
Porosity fraction /%
Porosity fraction /%

0.3 0.3

0.2 0.2

0.1 0.1

0.0 0.0
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000 0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
T2 /ms T2 /ms

(k) Sample No 11 (l) Sample No 12

Fig. 4  (continued)

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Table 4  NMR parameters Sample T2gm T2am T2gm T2am T2c (ms) Swi (%) Swm (%)
for these rock samples number saturated saturated irreducible irreducible
(ms) (ms) (ms) (ms)

1 12.47 46.75 2.65 4.71 6.77 34.00 66.00

2 7.11 40.68 2.01 3.58 4.26 36.41 63.59
3 8.77 33.59 2.50 18.24 6.33 41.52 58.48
4 24.31 60.33 2.53 17.04 6.67 22.51 77.49
5 4.84 18.61 1.93 13.11 3.08 42.09 57.91
6 6.77 23.31 2.39 46.41 3.87 37.50 62.50
7 22.09 50.87 2.34 32.53 5.59 19.90 80.10
8 28.39 58.21 3.52 52.75 7.35 15.71 84.29
9 22.67 55.90 3.06 5.38 8.14 25.57 74.43
10 25.16 62.70 2.92 5.33 5.20 17.53 82.47
11 7.74 23.05 2.59 19.83 5.18 41.06 58.94
12 13.66 54.73 3.65 6.72 9.03 36.57 63.43

the static Young’s modulus and static shear modu- that the compressive strength is positively corre-
lus are generally higher, and are positively corre- lated with the irreducible water saturation, whereas
lated with their dynamic values. However, the static negatively correlated with the movable water satu-
volumetric modulus and Poisson’s ratio are generally ration, suggesting that the compressive strength
lower than dynamic values and show no clear correla- is mainly controlled by the pore distribution. The
tions (Table 5). rock is easier to be fractured for higher percentage
of movable fluids, which are often resided in larger
3.4 Pore size and component control on the pores. We also exam the influence of T ­ 2 cutoff val-
compressive strength ues and NMR porosity on the compressive strength,
as is shown in Fig. 7e, f. It is seen that the compres-
Figure 7 gives the correlations of the compressive sive strength is weakly decreased with the increase
strength (CS) and NMR parameters including ­T2gm, of the cutoff value, although the physical explana-
­T2am, Swi, Swm, ­T2c, and NMR porosity. It is seen tion is not understood. In additional, the compres-
that the compressive strength is decreased with the sive strength is negatively correlated with the NMR
increase of T
­ 2gm and T­ 2am for core samples under obtained porosity, which is similar to most of previ-
the fully water saturated state. This phenomenon ous publications.
indicates that rock’s strength is controlled by the Based on the discussion, it is practical for us
pore size. Rock samples with larger pore radius are to establish the model to predict the compressive
easier to reach the failure state. It seems that there strength using the NMR obtained parameters, which
is no clear relationship between the compressive can be expressed as,
strength and the ­T2gm and ­T2am for samples under
the irreducible water saturated state. It is easy to
CS = a × T2gm + b × 𝜙NMR + c (8)
be interpreted since the NMR response of irreduc- where a, b, c are fitting parameters, which may
ible water saturated rock sample is mainly contrib- vary in different regions. In this study, they
uted by clay bound water and capillary bound water, are − 1.583, − 12.292, 320, respectively. The correla-
which cannot be used to characterize the pore size tion coefficient is as high as 0.92. We did not recom-
distribution of all ranges. Moreover, it is observed mend to use the irreducible water saturation and the

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300 25 300 25
Axial stress Axial stress
Axial strain 20 Axial strain 20
250 Radial strain 250 Radial strain
15 15
Volumetric strain Volumetric strain
10 10
200 200
5 5
Stress /MPa

Stress /MPa
-3

-3
Strain /10

Strain /10
150 0 150 0

-5 -5
100 100
-10 -10

-15 -15
50 50
-20 -20

0 -25 0 -25
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time /s Time /s

(a) Sample No 1 (b) Sample No 2

300 25 300 25
Axial stress Axial stress
Axial strain 20 Axial strain 20
250 Radial strain 250 Radial strain
15 15
Volumetric strain Volumetric strain
10 10
200 200
5 5
Stress /MPa
Stress /MPa

-3
-3

Strain /10
Strain /10

150 0 150 0

-5 -5
100 100
-10 -10

-15 -15
50 50
-20 -20

0 -25 0 -25
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time /s Time /s

(c) Sample No 3 (d) Sample No 4

300 25 300 25
Axial stress Axial stress
Axial strain 20 20
Axial strain
250 Radial strain 250 Radial strain
Volumetric strain 15 15
Volumetric strain
10 10
200 200
5 5
Stress /MPa

Stress /MPa
-3

-3
Strain /10

Strain /10

150 0 150 0

-5 -5
100 100
-10 -10

-15 -15
50 50
-20 -20

0 -25 0 -25
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time /s Time /s

(e) Sample No 5 (f) Sample No 6

Fig. 5  Time-dependent axial stress, axial strain, as well as radial strain for fully water saturated samples

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300 25 300 25
Axial stress Axial stress
Axial strain 20 Axial strain 20
250 Radial strain 250 Radial strain
15 15
Volumetric strain Volumetric strain
10 10
200 200
5 5
Stress /MPa

Stress /MPa
-3

-3
Strain /10

Strain /10
150 0 150 0

-5 -5
100 100
-10 -10

-15 -15
50 50
-20 -20

0 -25 0 -25
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time /s Time /s

(g) Sample No 7 (h) Sample No 8

300 25 300 25
Axial stress Axial stress
Axial strain 20 Axial strain 20
250 Radial strain 250 Radial strain
Volumetric strain 15 Volumetric strain 15

10 10
200 200
5 5
Stress /MPa
Stress /MPa

-3
-3

Strain /10
Strain /10

150 0 150 0

-5 -5
100 100
-10 -10

-15 -15
50 50
-20 -20

0 -25 0 -25
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 100 200 300 400 500 600
Time /s Time /s

(i) Sample No 9 (j) Sample No 10

300 25 300 25
Axial stress Axial stress
Axial strain 20 20
Axial strain
250 Radial strain 250 Radial strain
15 15
Volumetric strain Volumetric strain
10 10
200 200
5 5
Stress /MPa

Stress /MPa
-3

-3
Strain /10

Strain /10

150 0 150 0

-5 -5
100 100
-10 -10

-15 -15
50 50
-20 -20

0 -25 0 -25
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 0 100 200 300 400 500 600

Time /s Time /s

(k) Sample No 11 (l) Sample No 12

Fig. 5  (continued)

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 82 Page 14 of 21 Geomech. Geophys. Geo-energ. Geo-resour. (2024) 10:82

70 30

60 25

50 20
Ed /GPa

Sd /GPa
40 15

30 10

20 5

10 0
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0 5 10 15 20 25 30
Es /GPa Ss /GPa

(a) Static and dynamic Young’s modulus (b) Static and dynamic shear modulus

250 0.6

0.5
200

0.4
150
Vd /GPa

0.3
Pd

100
0.2

50
0.1

0 0.0
0 50 100 150 200 250 0.0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6
Vs /GPa Ps

(c) Static and dynamic volumetric modulus (d) Static and dynamic Poisson's ratio

Fig. 6  Relationship between static and dynamic geomechanical parameters

movable water saturation for the regression since both CS = d × Vplagioclase + e (9)
are difficult to obtain by fully saturated spectrums.
We re-exam the relationship between the compres- where d and e are fitting parameters. In this study,
sive strength and mineral compositions, as shown in they are − 2.942 and 290.58. The correlation coeffi-
Fig. 8. It seems that there are no clear correlations cient for this fitting is as low as 0.39.
between the compressive strength and the mineral Figure 9 gives the comparison between two dif-
contents expect for the plagioclase. The result indi- ferent methods. It is seen that the precision obtained
cates that plagioclase may be the brittle mineral in from the direct regression between the compressive
the studied region. The empirical equation can be strength and the plagioclase content is relative lower
expressed as, than the result obtained by the NMR parameters.

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Geomech. Geophys. Geo-energ. Geo-resour. (2024) 10:82 Page 15 of 21 82

Table 5  Static and dynamic geomechanical parameters for fully water saturated samples
Sample CS (MPa) Static geomechanical parameters Dynamic geomechanical parameters
number
Es (Gpa) Ss (Gpa) Vs (GPa) Ps Ed (Gpa) Sd (Gpa) Vd (GPa) Pd

1 199.8 25.3 9.1 38.1 0.39 45.6 18.6 27.3 0.22

2 240.1 29.2 11.0 28.7 0.33 55.9 24.0 27.6 0.16
3 174.3 26.6 9.1 147.0 0.47 50.3 20.3 31.8 0.24
4 125.8 18.3 6.8 18.9 0.34 30.8 12.1 22.3 0.27
5 274.0 38.3 15.6 23.2 0.22 60.8 25.0 35.7 0.22
6 239.5 28.7 12.2 14.8 0.18 55.8 22.9 32.9 0.22
7 126.6 17.9 6.3 41.8 0.43 30.1 11.7 23.1 0.28
8 121.4 17.6 5.9 224.0 0.49 29.2 11.4 22.0 0.28
9 113.3 14.7 – – 0.50 34.5 13.7 23.6 0.26
10 97.1 15.7 – – 0.50 27.5 10.6 22.3 0.29
11 250.5 30.3 11.3 31.0 0.34 50.6 19.9 36.8 0.27
12 169.5 21.9 8.2 22.8 0.34 45.8 18.8 27.3 0.22

Moreover, it is very difficult to obtain the plagioclase 2. The rock’s strength is influenced by the fluid dis-
content because they are no direct well logging meas- tribution state. The compressive strength is posi-
urements to detect the minerals’ compositions and tively correlated with the irreducible water satu-
their contents, expect the elemental capture spectros- ration, but negatively correlated with the movable
copy (ECS) logging. water saturation. The rock is easier to be frac-
tured with the increase of the percentage of larger
pores and movable fluids. The rock is easier to be
4 Conclusions fractured for higher percentage of movable fluids,
which are often resided in larger pores.
We investigated the relationship between the pore 3. There are weak correlations between the com-
size and the compress strength for tight sand- pressive strength and the mineral contents, indi-
stone based on laboratory NMR measurements and cating that the rock’s strength estimated by brittle
pseudo-triaxial compression tests, aiming to develop minerals may be invalid.
an effective way to predict the compressive strength 4. The compressive strength for water saturated
using the NMR data. The main conclusions are as samples can be predicted precisely through mul-
follows: tiple regressions with NMR parameters such as
­T2gm and porosity. The empirical equation can
1. The rock’s strength is controlled by the pore size be potentially used for geophysical prospecting
distribution for tight sandstone with similar min- with NMR logging data.
erals’ compositions. The rock is easier to easier
to reach the failure state for larger average pore It is noted that our observations are limited to labo-
radius, supported by the observation between the ratory studies of tight sandstone, much work should
compressive strength and the geometric, as well be done to further investigate their relationships.
as the arithmetic mean of the transversal relaxa- Moreover, the fluid phases and their distributions
tion time. under the reservoir condition should be considered

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 82 Page 16 of 21 Geomech. Geophys. Geo-energ. Geo-resour. (2024) 10:82

300 300
T2gm T2gm
T2am T2am
250 250

200 200

CS /GPa
CS /GPa

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70
Fully water saturated T2 /ms Irreducible water saturated T2 /ms

(a) CS and fully water saturated T 2 (b) CS and irreducible water saturated T 2
300 300

250 250

200 200
CS /GPa
CS /GPa

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 0 20 40 60 80 100
Swi /% Swm /%

(c) CS and Swi (d) CS and Swm

350 350

300 300

250 250

200 200
CS /GPa

CS /GPa

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 3 6 9 12 15 0 5 10 15 20
T2c /ms NMR porosity /%

(e) CS and T2c (f) CS and NMR porosity

Fig. 7  Relationship between the compressive strength and NMR parameters

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Geomech. Geophys. Geo-energ. Geo-resour. (2024) 10:82 Page 17 of 21 82

350 350

300 300

250 250

200 200
CS /GPa

CS /GPa
150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
VQuartz /% VK-feldspar /%

(a) CS and quartz content (b) CS and K-feldspar content

350 350

300 300

250 250

200 200
CS /GPa
CS /GPa

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
VPalgioclase /% VCalcite /%

(c) CS and plagioclase content (d) CS and calcite content

350 350

300 300

250 250

200 200
CS /GPa

CS /GPa

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 20 40 60 80 100 0 20 40 60 80 100
VDolomite /% VClay /%

(e) CS and dolomite content (f) CS and clay content

Fig. 8  Relationship between the compressive strength and the mineral composition

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 82 Page 18 of 21 Geomech. Geophys. Geo-energ. Geo-resour. (2024) 10:82

350 350

300 300

250 250
Predicted CS /MPa

Predicted CS /MPa
200 200

150 150

100 100

50 50

0 0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Experimented CS/ MPa Experimented CS /MPa

(a) CS predicted by NMR parameters (b) CS predicted by brittle minerals

Fig. 9  Comparison between the experimented and predicted compressive strength

since the pore is not only wetted by the single water intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds
phase. the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly
from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Acknowledgements This work was supported by Natural
Science Foundation of Shandong Province (ZR2023YQ034),
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42174142),
CNPC Innovation Found (2021DQ02-0402), and CNPC Sci-
ence and Technology Project (2021DJ3804).
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