TY - GEN
T1 - Complete laboratory experimentation on hydraulic fracturing
AU - Einstein, Herbert H.
AU - Al-Dajani, Omar
AU - Da Silva, Bruno Gonçalves
AU - Li, G. Bing
AU - Morgan, Stephen
N1 - Funding Information:
The research on granite and the initial equipment development was sponsored by the US Dept. of Energy (Project Recovery Act: Decision Analysis for Enhanced Geothermal Systems) and TOTAL (Project MSGC—Multiscale Gasshale Collaboratory), while the shale work was sponsored by TOTAL (Project MSGC) and ARAMCO (fellowship). As mentioned in the text the Opalinus Clayshale was made available by the Mt Terri Lab of SwissTopo. The authors would like to express their gratitude for all this support.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK.
PY - 2018
Y1 - 2018
N2 - Hydraulic fracturing is widely used to create new fractures or extend and open existing ones. However, what exactly happens in the field is not well understood because, in most cases, only indirect information in form of pumping records, microseisms and the in-situ stress field are known. The MIT Rock Mechanics Group has developed and used a unique test equipment, with which the hydraulic fracture propagation can be visually observed while acoustic emissions are simultaneously recorded. All this can be done under different far field (external) stresses and different hydraulic pressures and flow rates. Interestingly, it is also possible to observe how the hydraulic fluid moves in the fractures. This allows one to relate details of the fracturing process to the micro-seismic observations and the boundary conditions thus providing the complete information that the field applications cannot. The testing equipment will be described first, followed by detailed descriptions of hydraulic fracturing experiments on granite and shale. These two rock types represent the typical usage of hydraulic fracturing: Granite for EGS (Engineered Geothermal Systems) and shale for hydrocarbon extraction.
AB - Hydraulic fracturing is widely used to create new fractures or extend and open existing ones. However, what exactly happens in the field is not well understood because, in most cases, only indirect information in form of pumping records, microseisms and the in-situ stress field are known. The MIT Rock Mechanics Group has developed and used a unique test equipment, with which the hydraulic fracture propagation can be visually observed while acoustic emissions are simultaneously recorded. All this can be done under different far field (external) stresses and different hydraulic pressures and flow rates. Interestingly, it is also possible to observe how the hydraulic fluid moves in the fractures. This allows one to relate details of the fracturing process to the micro-seismic observations and the boundary conditions thus providing the complete information that the field applications cannot. The testing equipment will be described first, followed by detailed descriptions of hydraulic fracturing experiments on granite and shale. These two rock types represent the typical usage of hydraulic fracturing: Granite for EGS (Engineered Geothermal Systems) and shale for hydrocarbon extraction.
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M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85061356086
SN - 9781138616455
T3 - Geomechanics and Geodynamics of Rock Masses
SP - 17
EP - 30
BT - Geomechanics and Geodynamics of Rock Masses
A2 - Litvinenko, Vladimir
PB - CRC Press/Balkema
T2 - International European Rock Mechanics Symposium, EUROCK 2018
Y2 - 22 May 2018 through 26 May 2018
ER -