Mechanical behaviour of Lixhe chalk partly saturated by oil and water: experiment and modelling

Two or more different fluids generally saturate chalk in oil reservoir, and therefore its behaviour can be very complicated. In this paper, a constitutive law is proposed for modelling the mechanical behaviour of a chalk saturated by two non-miscible fluids, water and oil. The effects of the capillary pressure or suction are taken into account. They are considered as an independent variable, as in the Barcelona's basic model developed for unsaturated soils. On the other hand, internal friction and pore collapse are modelled as independent mechanisms. The determination of the parameters is based on triaxial and oedometer tests. Finally, in order to validate the model, predictions are compared with experimental results of water-flooding test. Copyright (C) 2002 John Wiley Sons, Ltd.