Porous Rock Fracture Mechanics

Porous Rock Failure Mechanics: Hydraulic Fracturing, Drilling and Structural Engineering focuses on the fracture mechanics of porous rocks and modern simulation techniques for progressive quasi-static and dynamic fractures. The topics covered in this volume include a wide range of academic and industrial applications, including petroleum, mining, and civil engineering. Chapters focus on advanced topics in the field of rock’s fracture mechanics and address theoretical concepts, experimental characterization, numerical simulation techniques, and their applications as appropriate. Each chapter reflects the current state-of-the-art in terms of the modern use of fracture simulation in industrial and academic sectors. Some of the major contributions in this volume include, but are not limited to: anisotropic elasto-plastic deformation mechanisms in fluid saturated porous rocks, dynamics of fluids transport in fractured rocks and simulation techniques, fracture mechanics and simulation techniques in porous rocks, fluid-structure interaction in hydraulic driven fractures, advanced numerical techniques for simulation of progressive fracture, including multiscale modeling, and micromechanical approaches for porous rocks, and quasi-static versus dynamic fractures in porous rocks. This book will serve as an important resource for petroleum, geomechanics, drilling and structural engineers, R&D managers in industry and academia. Includes a strong editorial team and quality experts as chapter authors Presents topics identified for individual chapters are current, relevant, and interesting Focuses on advanced topics, such as fluid coupled fractures, rock’s continuum damage mechanics, and multiscale modeling Provides a ‘one-stop’ advanced-level reference for a graduate course focusing on rock’s mechanics

Porosity plays a clearly important role in geology. It controls fluid storage in aquifers, oil and gas fields and geothermal systems, and the extent and connectivity of the pore structure control fluid flow and transport through geological formations, as well as the relationship between the properties of individual minerals and the bulk properties of the rock. In order to quantify the relationships between porosity, storage, transport and rock properties, however, the pore structure must be measured and quantitatively described.Porous Rock Fracture Mechanics focuses on the fracture mechanics of porous rocks and modern simulation techniques for progressive quasi-static and dynamic fractures. The topics covered in this volume include a wide range of academic and industrial applications, including petroleum, mining, and civil engineering. The goal of this book is to summarize, in a manner the reader can use for future experimental work, many of the techniques for analyzing the porosity of rocks or other porous materials. The mechanisms pertaining to percussion drilling and blasting are investigated, with specific reference to the application of fracture mechanics. In order to gain an improved understanding of the mechanisms controlling rock fragmentation, a multidisciplinary approach is followed which includes laboratory experiments conducted in plexiglass and rock, in-situ field experiments and analytical/numerical modeling techniques.This book discusses scattering methods for porosity analysis, petrophysical approaches, and image analysis approaches. Chapters focus on advanced topics in the field of rock's fracture mechanics and address theoretical concepts, experimental characterization, numerical simulation techniques, and their applications as appropriate. The increased attention paid to experimental rock fracture mechanics has led to major contributions to the solving of geophysical problems.This book serves as an important guiding tool for petroleum, geomechanics, drilling and structural engineers, Civil Engineers, Material Scientists, R&D managers in industry and academia as well as researchers in this field find this book beneficial.

(4). The next three papers extend these views by taking a closer look on parameters that govern hydraulic diffusivity in sandstones and other types of rocks. Specific targets addressed are the influence of differential stress on permeability (5), imaging of the fracture geometry (6), and pressure induced variations in the pore geometry (7). Contributions no. 8 to 10 cover investigations of permeability-porosity relationships during rock evolution (8), of the formation, propagation, and roughness of fractures in a plexi-glass block (9), and pressure oscillation effects of two-phase flow under controlled conditions (10). The subsequent four articles focus on diverse modeling approaches. Issues considered are how the geometry and the mechanical behavior of fractures can be characterized by mathematical expressions (11), how the evolution of permeability in a microcracking rock can be expressed by an analytical model (12), deviations from the cubic law for a fracture of varying aperture (13), and the numerical simulation of scale effects in flow through fractures (14). Three further papers refer to in situ observations, being related to topics as the assessment of in situ permeability from the spatio temporal distribution of an aftershock sequence (15), to the scale dependence of hydraulic pathways in crystalline rock (16), and to the significance of pore pressure - stress coupling in deep tunnels and galleries (17).

The analysis of crack problems through fracture mechanics has been applied to the study of materials such as glass, metals and ceramics because relatively simple fracture criteria describe the failure of these materials. The increased attention paid to experimental rock fracture mechanics has led to major contributions to the solving of geophysical problems. The text presents a concise treatment of the physics and mathematics of a representative selection of problems from areas such as earthquake mechanics and prediction, hydraulic fracturing, hot dry rock geothermal energy, fault mechanics, and dynamic fragmentation.

The book offers novel petrophysical methods for obtaining and characterizing physical properties of sandstone and fractured carbonate rocks. The proposed experimental petrophysical test for the determination of permeability tensor ellipses in fractured rocks at a laboratory scale is a methodology of easy application and does not require complicated equipment. Such a test can be extended with 3D digital petrophysics. The estimation of principal permeability directions is useful in the realization of immiscible or miscible displacements in the rock. This book is of interest for professionals and researchers in the field of petrophysics and oil and gas exploration.

Scientific understanding of fluid flow in rock fracturesâ€"a process underlying contemporary earth science problems from the search for petroleum to the controversy over nuclear waste storageâ€"has grown significantly in the past 20 years. This volume presents a comprehensive report on the state of the field, with an interdisciplinary viewpoint, case studies of fracture sites, illustrations, conclusions, and research recommendations. The book addresses these questions: How can fractures that are significant hydraulic conductors be identified, located, and characterized? How do flow and transport occur in fracture systems? How can changes in fracture systems be predicted and controlled? Among other topics, the committee provides a geomechanical understanding of fracture formation, reviews methods for detecting subsurface fractures, and looks at the use of hydraulic and tracer tests to investigate fluid flow. The volume examines the state of conceptual and mathematical modeling, and it provides a useful framework for understanding the complexity of fracture changes that occur during fluid pumping and other engineering practices. With a practical and multidisciplinary outlook, this volume will be welcomed by geologists, petroleum geologists, geoengineers, geophysicists, hydrologists, researchers, educators and students in these fields, and public officials involved in geological projects.

An investigation of the mechanical influence of interstitial fluids on the deformation process of saturated rocks has been conducted to determine the domain of validity of previously published theories. Equilibrium equations for fluid saturated materials in which the fluid is at rest or flows according to DARCY's law were derived. For this purpose, a new characterization of porosity has been proposed for analyzing porosity variation within a rock mass. This derivation indicates that the bulk material (solid plus fluid) can be represented by an equivalent homogeneous continuum for which the mass density and the stress tensor at any point depend upon average stresses and average densities of both the solid matrix and the saturating fluid as well as upon the surface and the volume porosity.