Interpretation of in situ horizontal stress from self-boring pressuremeter tests in sands via cavity pressure less than limit pressure: a numerical study

2017 ◽  
Vol 76 (9) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Mehdi Ahmadi ◽  
Ehsan Keshmiri
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ehsan Keshmiri ◽  
Mohammad Mehdi Ahmadi

AbstractThe paper presents a numerical analysis of pressuremeter test in unsaturated cohesive soils. In practice, pressuremeter is commonly expanded up to 10–15% cavity strains. At these strains, limit pressure is not usually reached, and its value is estimated by extrapolation. Accordingly, authors suggest using cavity pressure at 10% strain (P10) for the interpretation of pressuremeter test rather than limit pressure. At this strain, it is also assured that plastic strain occurs around the cavity, which is crucial for the interpretations. In unsaturated soils, the moisture at which a soil is tested has a noticeable influence on the pressuremeter cavity pressure, and consequently, on the magnitude of P10. In this paper, unsaturated soil behaviour has been captured by Barcelona basic model (BBM), and the influence of each BBM parameter on the P10 value is explored. Next, relative weight analysis technique is performed to investigate the relative importance of BBM parameters in prediction of P10. Artificial intelligence technique of genetic programming is used to develop a relationship to predict the P10 value in unsaturated soils from BBM parameters. Finally, the application of the proposed equation is shown through illustrative examples.


2012 ◽  
Vol 616-618 ◽  
pp. 538-542 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fu Xiang Zhang ◽  
Wei Feng Ge ◽  
Xiang Tong Yang ◽  
Wei Zhang ◽  
Jian Xin Peng

To alleviate the problems of casing collapse induced by the coupling effect of rock salt creep and casing wear, the effects of salt creep, attrition rate and casing abrasive position on the equivalent stress on casings in non-uniform in-situ stress field is analyzed by finite-difference model with worn casing, cement and salt formation. It indicates that, creep reduces the yield strength of worn casing to a certain extent; Equivalent stress on casings is bigger and more non-uniform when the abrasion is more serious; Wear position obviously changes the distribution of equivalent stress on casing, and when the wear located along the direction of the minimum in-situ stress, equivalent stress on casing could be the largest that leads to the casing being failed more easily. Equivalent stress on casings increases gradually with creep time increasing and will get to balance in one year or so; In addition, new conclusions are obtained which are different from before: the maximum equivalent stress on casings is in the direction of the minimum horizontal stress, only when the attrition rate of the casing is little; otherwise, it is not. This method could help to improve the wear prediction and design of casings.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Koki Oikawa ◽  
Hirotaka Saito ◽  
Seiichiro Kuroda ◽  
Kazunori Takahashi

<p>As an array antenna ground penetrating radar (GPR) system electronically switches any antenna combinations sequentially in milliseconds, multi-offset gather data, such as common mid-point (CMP) data, can be acquired almost seamlessly. However, due to the inflexibility of changing the antenna offset, only a limited number of scans can be obtained. The array GPR system has been used to collect time-lapse GPR data, including CMP data during the field infiltration experiment (Iwasaki et al., 2016). CMP data obtained by the array GPR are, however, too sparse to obtain reliable velocity using a standard velocity analysis, such as semblance analysis. We attempted to interpolate the sparse CMP data based on projection onto convex sets (POCS) algorithm (Yi et al., 2016) coupled with NMO correction to automatically determine optimum EM wave velocity. Our previous numerical study showed that the proposed method allows us to determine the EM wave velocity during the infiltration experiment.</p><p>The main objective of this study was to evaluate the performance of the proposed method to interpolate sparse array antenna GPR CMP data collected during the in-situ infiltration experiment at Tottori sand dunes. The interpolated CMP data were then used in the semblance analysis to determine the EM wave velocity, which was further used to compute the infiltration front depth. The estimated infiltration depths agreed well with independently obtained depths. This study demonstrated the possibility of developing an automatic velocity analysis based on POCS interpolation coupled with NMO correction for sparse CMP collected with array antenna GPR.</p>


Geophysics ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 1-97
Author(s):  
kai lin ◽  
Bo Zhang ◽  
Jianjun Zhang ◽  
Huijing Fang ◽  
Kefeng Xi ◽  
...  

The azimuth of fractures and in-situ horizontal stress are important factors in planning horizontal wells and hydraulic fracturing for unconventional resources plays. The azimuth of natural fractures can be directly obtained by analyzing image logs. The azimuth of the maximum horizontal stress σH can be predicted by analyzing the induced fractures on image logs. The clustering of micro-seismic events can also be used to predict the azimuth of in-situ maximum horizontal stress. However, the azimuth of natural fractures and the in-situ maximum horizontal stress obtained from both image logs and micro-seismic events are limited to the wellbore locations. Wide azimuth seismic data provides an alternative way to predict the azimuth of natural fractures and maximum in-situ horizontal stress if the seismic attributes are properly calibrated with interpretations from well logs and microseismic data. To predict the azimuth of natural fractures and in-situ maximum horizontal stress, we focus our analysis on correlating the seismic attributes computed from pre-stack and post-stack seismic data with the interpreted azimuth obtained from image logs and microseismic data. The application indicates that the strike of the most positive principal curvature k1 can be used as an indicator for the azimuth of natural fractures within our study area. The azimuthal anisotropy of the dominant frequency component if offset vector title (OVT) seismic data can be used to predict the azimuth of maximum in-situ horizontal stress within our study area that is located the southern region of the Sichuan Basin, China. The predicted azimuths provide important information for the following well planning and hydraulic fracturing.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianguo Zhang ◽  
Karthik Mahadev ◽  
Stephen Edwards ◽  
Alan Rodgerson

Abstract Maximum horizontal stress (SH) and stress path (change of SH and minimum horizontal stress with depletion) are the two most difficult parameters to define for an oilfield geomechanical model. Understanding these in-situ stresses is critical to the success of operations and development, especially when production is underway, and the reservoir depletion begins. This paper introduces a method to define them through the analysis of actual minifrac data. Field examples of applications on minifrac failure analysis and operational pressure prediction are also presented. It is commonly accepted that one of the best methods to determine the minimum horizontal stress (Sh) is the use of pressure fall-off analysis of a minifrac test. Unlike Sh, the magnitude of SH cannot be measured directly. Instead it is back calculated by using fracture initiation pressure (FIP) and Sh derived from minifrac data. After non-depleted Sh and SH are defined, their apparent Poisson's Ratios (APR) are calculated using the Eaton equation. These APRs define Sh and SH in virgin sand to encapsulate all other factors that influence in-situ stresses such as tectonic, thermal, osmotic and poro-elastic effects. These values can then be used to estimate stress path through interpretation of additional minifrac data derived from a depleted sand. A geomechanical model is developed based on APRs and stress paths to predict minifrac operation pressures. Three cases are included to show that the margin of error for FIP and fracture closure pressure (FCP) is less than 2%, fracture breakdown pressure (FBP) less than 4%. Two field cases in deep-water wells in the Gulf of Mexico show that the reduction of SH with depletion is lower than that for Sh.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document