A surge of interest in the geomechanical and petrophysical properties of mudrocks (shales) has taken place in recent years following the development of a shale gas industry in the United States and elsewhere, and with the prospect of similar developments in the UK. Also, these rocks are of particular importance in excavation and construction geotechnics and other rock engineering applications, such as underground natural gas storage, carbon dioxide disposal and radioactive waste storage. They may greatly influence the stability of natural and engineered slopes. Mudrocks, which make up almost three-quarters of all the sedimentary rocks on Earth, therefore impact on many areas of applied geoscience. This volume focuses on the mechanical behaviour and various physical properties of mudrocks. The 15 chapters are grouped into three themes: (i) physical properties such as porosity, permeability, fluid flow through cracks, strength and geotechnical behaviour; (ii) mineralogy and microstructure, which control geomechanical behaviour; and (iii) fracture, both in laboratory studies and in the field.

Petrophysical Characterization and Fluids Transport in Unconventional Reservoirs presents a comprehensive look at these new methods and technologies for the petrophysical characterization of unconventional reservoirs, including recent theoretical advances and modeling on fluids transport in unconventional reservoirs. The book is a valuable tool for geoscientists and engineers working in academia and industry. Many novel technologies and approaches, including petrophysics, multi-scale modelling, rock reconstruction and upscaling approaches are discussed, along with the challenge of the development of unconventional reservoirs and the mechanism of multi-phase/multi-scale flow and transport in these structures. - Includes both practical and theoretical research for the characterization of unconventional reservoirs - Covers the basic approaches and mechanisms for enhanced recovery techniques in unconventional reservoirs - Presents the latest research in the fluid transport processes in unconventional reservoirs

With the successful development of shale oil and gas, there has been a great deal of concern about shale and its characteristics, especially in characterization technology, genesis, evolution and control factors of shale reservoirs. The pore structure of a shale reservoir is complex, and the nanometer pore is dominant, which can reach more than 80%. Since the size of oil and gas molecules is mainly below 100 nm, hydrocarbon molecules and petroleum asphaltenes can enter into the nano pores completely, but the capillary resistance in the nano pores restricts the free flow of fluid. There is a large viscous force and molecular force between the fluid in the nano pore throat and the surrounding media. The hydrocarbon molecules adhere to the surface of minerals and kerogen in the adsorption state and in the diffusion state. So, the nano pore network controls the occurrence and enrichment of shale oil and gas. The pore structure and porosity evaluation of shale mainly depends on mercury intrusion, gas adsorption, SEM, etc. The micro-nano pore 3D characterization technology, represented by focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM), has become the mainstream trend in shale nano pore analysis technology, which extends the observation scale of shale structure to the nano scale. With the development of shale reservoir description and characterization technology, the accuracy of characterize shale pores has been greatly improved, which provides a precondition for solving the formation, evolution, and oil-gas accumulation mechanism of unconventional reservoir pores.

The growth of interest in newly developed porous materials has prompted the writing of this book for those who have the need to make meaningful measurements without the benefit of years of experience. One might consider this new book as the 4th edition of "Powder Surface Area and Porosity" (Lowell & Shields), but for this new edition we set out to incorporate recent developments in the understanding of fluids in many types of porous materials, not just powders. Based on this, we felt that it would be prudent to change the title to "Characterization of Porous Solids and Powders: Surface Area, Porosity and Density". This book gives a unique overview of principles associated with the characterization of solids with regard to their surface area, pore size, pore volume and density. It covers methods based on gas adsorption (both physi and chemisorption), mercury porosimetry and pycnometry. Not only are the theoretical and experimental basics of these techniques presented in detail but also, in light of the tremendous progress made in recent years in materials science and nanotechnology, the most recent developments are described. In particular, the application of classical theories and methods for pore size analysis are contrasted with the most advanced microscopic theories based on statistical mechanics (e.g. Density Functional Theory and Molecular Simulation). The characterization of heterogeneous catalysts is more prominent than in earlier editions; the sections on mercury porosimetry and particularly chemisorption have been updated and greatly expanded.