Densification and permeability reduction in hot‐pressed calcite: A kinetic model

Laboratory studies on hot isostatically pressed (HIP) calcite reveal that the evolution of porosity and permeability during mechanical compaction can be divided into two distinct regimes. At high porosities, permeability is related approximately to porosity raised to the third power. However, below a porosity called the crossover porosity, the power law relationship no longer applies, and permeability reduction is accelerated. At a porosity of ∼4%, permeability becomes too low to be measured, indicating that a percolation threshold has been reached. In previous studies the time evolutions of porosity and permeability were not predicted, and further, the crossover porosity was introduced as an empirical input parameter. In this study we developed a unified model combining crack healing with densification by power law creep to reproduce porosity evolution as a function of time. Both the healing and the creep are deterministically controlled by the pressure and temperature. Permeability can then be calculated by incorporating quantitative microstructural data (i.e., pore size distribution) into a three‐dimensional cubic network model. We were able to reproduce the permeability‐porosity relationship in hot‐pressed calcite aggregates in both high‐ and low‐porosity regimes. In particular, our model predicted a crossover porosity of ∼7% and a percolation threshold of ∼4%, both in a good agreement with the experimental data. However, we generally overestimated the absolute values of permeability. Because the model yielded correct absolute permeability values in the case when the pore size distribution was known, we suppose that at least part of the error arises from inadequate data for microstructure.