Unexpected viscoelastic deformation of tight sandstone: Insights and predictions from the fractional Maxwell model

Tight gas is one important unconventional hydrocarbon resource that is stored in tight sandstone, whose mechanical property greatly influences the tight gas production process and is commonly believed to be simply elastic when designing the stimulation plan. However, the experimental evidence provided in this work surprisingly shows that tight sandstone can deform in a viscoelastic way. Such an unexpected observation poses a challenge in accurately modelling the deformation process. We solve this problem by adopting the fractional Maxwell model to successfully derive the constitutive equation of tight sandstone, based on which not only all the experimental data can be interpreted quantitatively, but also reasonable and consistent predictions as to tight sandstone’s long-term deformation behaviour can be made. We then investigate the typicality of our results in China’s Changqing oilfield, which is one major centre of tight gas production and where the rock samples for experiments are obtained. It is estimated that a non-negligible portion of 18% tight sandstone samples in this area will probably display viscoelasticity. Finally, our work implies that the mechanical properties of other materials may also need further scrutiny to possibly uncover any unexpected behaviour, overlooking which may result in misleading predictions.