Analysis of creep characteristics of hydrate sediments under compressive loading

Hydrate mining may induce submarine landslides or other engineering geological disasters. Long-term and stable gas production is required for any commercial exploitation for natural gas hydrate. Understanding the creep properties of hydrate-bearing sediments is importance for the estimation of long-term stratum instability. Therefore, we analyzed the creep characteristics of silty clay by using a serial test on consolidation drainage creep under compression loading conditions with hydrate reservoir silty clay as the test medium. The results show that the deformation curves of hydrate bearing sediments presented three stages: instantaneous deformation, consolidation deformation, and creep deformation. With the increase of load and hydrate saturation, the creep strain increased progressively. The modified Singh-Mitchell creep model was applied, by which the creep properties of hydrate bearing sediments were well predicted at different stress levels and hydrate saturations.