Effect of Temperature on the Strength Parameters at the Plastic Domain for Unconsolidated Sandstones

Heavy and extra heavy oil reservoirs are subjected to high temperatures during thermal recovery processes like SAGD and CSS. In-situ temperature state changes throughout these operations may generate variations in the mechanical properties or strength parameters of the rock such as Young and Bulk’s modulus, internal friction angle, cohesion and dilation angle. This paper presents results about the variation of the elastic modulus and mechanical properties, in both elastic and plastic region due to changes in temperature and effective confining stress for reconstituted samples of Colombian unconsolidated sands. In order to study these changes, several drained triaxial tests are performed in a range of temperature between 50 and 230 °C and a range of effective confining stress between 0.4 and 8.2 MPa, these tests are carried out on reconstituted samples of oil sands recovered in an outcrop in the Magdalena middle valley of Colombia. The experimental results are analyzed with an analytical model based on the constitutive model of Mohr–Coulomb. The analysis is divided in two ways: First, the elastic region is analyzed calculating the variation of the elastic modulus (Young and bulk’s modulus) and the mechanical parameters (cohesion and internal friction angle) with temperature and effective confining stress, these calculus are done in the linear zone of the stress–strain curve. Then, the plastic region is analyzed using Mohr–Coulomb constitutive model with a non-associative flow rule in order to represent in a better way the dilatant/contractive behavior of the material, from this analysis is possible to obtain the behavior of the mechanical properties during plastic strains. The stress–strain curves obtained from the triaxial compression tests show that for the highest and medium effective confining stress (8.2 and 4.0 MPa), there is a hardening strain behavior after the yielding point that implies a loose sand behavior under confining conditions. Meanwhile, for lowest effective confining stress (0.4 MPa) the samples show a softening strain, a typical behavior for dense sands under confining conditions.