Experimental Measurements of Threshold Pressure for Modeling Saline Aquifers in Japan

In this study we evaluated threshold pressures of fine grained rocks in Japan. We used two methods, one is indirect method and the other is direct measurement. Mercury intrusion test (MIT) is the indirect method and the relations between threshold pressures and permeability coefficients results are consistent with existing data. But the threshold pressure obtained by MIT was a little lower than that by direct measurement. The reason for this difference might be that the MIT can't take account of flow direction, though flow direction of direct measurement is perpendicular to the bedding plane. As direct method, we conducted threshold pressure measurements by stepwise way using CO2 and N2. Similar to the previous study, threshold pressure using N2 was higher than that using CO2. (c) 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.