SCT Operations (Strata Control Technology)
  • STRESS MEASUREMENT
  • Rob Jeffrey

Welcome to SCT's own publications library which contains a collection of recent publications and other resources with reliable research about our technology. 

  • Growth Analysis and Fracture Mechanics Based on Measured Stress Change near Full Size Hydraulic Fracture - Rob Jeffrey - Ken Mills

    This paper describes the successful measurement of stress changes induced in a crystalline rock mass adjacent to a full size hydraulic fracture. A hydraulic fracture was initially formed using water and subsequently 2-D numerical models. The full three dimensional stress changes were measured using four ANZI stresscells installed and tested in situ prior to the start of hydraulic fracturing. The instruments were installed in pairs in two boreholes located some 7-8mm laterally and 17-20m above the injection point. The in situ stressfield at the site was such that the hydraulic fracture passed within approximately 5m of the instruments allowing the stress changes associated wit the passage of the fracture tip to be monitored as well as the stressed induced in the rock by the hydraulic fracture once the fracture tip was well past. The instruments were logged at 15 second intervals throughout the hydraulic fracture treatments to provide a time history of the complete three dimensional stress changes that occurred as each hydraulic fracture grew toward and then passed close to the instruments.

    The monitoring was undertaken as part of a larger project aimed at preconditioning a rock mass with multiple hydraulic fractures. The result of only two of the fractures are considered in this paper. Analysis of the other fractures is ongoing. Analysis of the stress change data provides information about the fracture rate and mode of growth orientation, and about the excess pressure acting inside the fracture to open it. Growth-Analysis-and-Fracture-Mechanics-Based-on-Measured-Stress-Change-near-Full-Size-Hydraulic-Fracture-R.Jeffrey-K.Mills.pdf370 KB
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