Quasistatic deformation experiments in the laboratory are key to determining the poroelastic moduli of rocks. For microinhomogeneous porous rocks, it is a challenge to determine a complete set of poroelastic parameters. This is because an additional parameter is required that quantifies the effect of microinhomogeneities because then the unjacketed bulk and pore moduli are no longer the same as the bulk modulus of the solid phase. We found that measurements for the drained and unjacketed bulk moduli together with Skempton’s pore-pressure build-up coefficient were sufficient to determine the solid-phase bulk modulus and the microinhomogeneity parameter. The latter served as a direct measure for the deviation from Biot-Gassmann prediction for the undrained bulk modulus. We applied the results to a set of measured poroelastic moduli in which microinhomogeneities have been made responsible for a non-Gassmann rock behavior. Accordingly, our estimate for the microinhomogeneity parameter quantified the deviation from the Biot-Gassmann prediction.

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