Experimental investigation on dynamic mechanical characteristics of casing during hydrate decomposition using depressurization

During marine hydrate production, some potentially undesirable consequences of casing strength failure are prone to occur. However, conventional methods used in casing mechanical analysis is unable to handle casing failure accurately, as the macro constitutive model employed in current simulation could not reflect the real stress-strain relationship of hydrate reservoir. This paper aimed at proposing an experimental method to investigate dynamic mechanical responses of casing during hydrate decomposition based on the self-developed experiment system, in which overlying stress was simulated to construct a similar mechanical environment of casing. By conducting laboratory-scale tests, the effect of overlying stress on casing mechanical behaviors could be revealed, and comparative analysis of casing axial stress obtained from experiment and simulation was carried out. Experimental results indicated that axial stress and extrusion pressure of casing increased 20.91 % and 7.18 % with the increase of overlying stress, respectively. Casing axial stress increased first and then gradually reached stable in different depressurization stage, which agreed well with the results calculated by numerical simulation. The maximum error between experimental data and simulation results was 11.7 %, 11.1 % and 10.2 % in different depressurization stage, respectively. The proposed approach could provide reference for casing safety design of natural gas hydrate production.