Design and modeling of small scale multiple fracturing experiments

Abstract

Recent experiments at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) have demonstrated the existence of three distinct fracture regimes. Depending on the pressure rise time in a borehole, one can obtain hydraulic, multiple, or explosive fracturing behavior. The use of propellants rather than explosives in tamped boreholes permits tailoring of the pressure risetime over a wide range since propellants having a wide range of burn rates are available. This technique of using the combustion gases from a full bore propellant charge to produce controlled borehole pressurization is termed High Energy Gas Fracturing (HEGF). Several series of HEGF, in 0.15 m and 0.2 m diameter boreholes at 12 m depths, have been completed in a tunnel complex at NTS where mineback permitted direct observation of fracturing obtained. Because such large experiments are costly and time consuming, smaller scale experiments are desirable, provided results from small experiments can be used to predict fracture behavior in larger boreholes. In order to design small scale gas fracture experiments, the available data from previous HEGF experiments were carefully reviewed, analytical elastic wave modeling was initiated, and semi-empirical modeling was conducted which combined predictions for statically pressurized boreholes with experimental data. The results of these efforts include (1)more » the definition of what constitutes small scale experiments for emplacement in a tunnel complex at the Nevada Test Site, (2) prediction of average crack radius, in ash fall tuff, as a function of borehole size and energy input per unit length, (3) definition of multiple-hydraulic and multiple-explosive fracture boundaries as a function of boreholes size and surface wave velocity, (4) semi-empirical criteria for estimating stress and acceleration, and (5) a proposal that multiple fracture orientations may be governed by in situ stresses.« less

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