Author Identifier (ORCID)
Abstract
Young’s modulus is a critical parameter for evaluating the stability of rock reservoirs, such as CO₂ geological storage. These reservoirs are exposed to chemically corrosions, which alter the pore structure, particularly porosity and pore size heterogeneity, thereby affecting Young’s modulus. This study conducted multiscale experiments to investigate how acid-driven chemical corrosion affects pore structure and its relationship with the Young’s modulus of rocks. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) was used to characterize pore structure evolution, while corrosion mechanisms were examined via mass loss, XRD, pH monitoring, and ion chromatography. Based on the experimental results, a Kinetic Weibull Modulus (KWM) model was developed to quantify pore size heterogeneity, alongside a Kinetic Porosity Model (KPM) and the Generalized Mixture Rule (GMR) to determine porosity-dependent Young’s modulus. These components were integrated into a unified predictive framework validated against experimental observations. The findings reveal that chemical corrosion promotes increased pore size heterogeneity, which evolves nonlinearly with reaction kinetics and transitions to a linear regime as H⁺ is depleted. Both porosity and heterogeneity contribute to the degradation of Young’s modulus, with heterogeneity playing a particularly significant role by amplifying the weakening effect of porosity. This research presents a novel integrated framework combining the KWM model, the KPM, and the GMR for predicting the long-term mechanical behavior of rocks exposed to chemical corrosion, with important implications for stability assessment in underground geoengineering applications.
Keywords
chemical corrosion, limestone, pore-size heterogeneity, porosity, Young’s modulus
Document Type
Journal Article
Date of Publication
1-1-2026
E-ISSN
1434453X
ISSN
07232632
Publication Title
Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering
Publisher
Springer
School
Centre for Sustainable Energy and Resources / School of Engineering
Funding Information
Natural Science Foundation of Xinjiang, 2025D01A153, National Top Talents Program of China, JXRSB02001.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Li, H., You, Z., Pel, L., & Smeulders, D. (2026). Combined effect of porosity and pore-size heterogeneity on Young’s modulus of chemically corroded rocks. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-026-05601-0