P‐wave transmission across fractures with nonlinear deformational behaviour

Stress wave attenuation across fractured rock masses is a great concern of underground structure safety. When the wave amplitude is large, fractures experience nonlinear deformation during the wave propagation. This paper presents a study on normal transmission of P‐wave across parallel fractures with nonlinear deformational behaviour (static Barton–Bandis model). The results show that the magnitude of transmission coefficient is a function of incident wave amplitude, nondimensional fracture spacing and number of fractures. Two important indices of nondimensional fracture spacing are identified, and they divide the area of nondimensional fracture spacing into three parts (individual fracture area, transition area and small spacing area). In the different areas, the magnitude of transmission coefficient has different trends with nondimensional fracture spacing and number of fractures. In addition, the study reveals that under some circumstances, the magnitude of transmission coefficient increases with increasing number of fractures, and is larger than 1. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Anisotropic damage of rock joints during cyclic loading: constitutive framework and numerical integration

This work describes a constitutive framework for modeling the behavior of rough joints under cyclic loading. Particular attention is paid to the intrinsic links between dilatancy, surface degradation, and mobilized shear strength. The framework also accounts for the important effect of shear‐induced anisotropy. The resulting approach is fully three‐dimensional and is not restricted to plane‐displacement kinematics. Both the governing formulation and an algorithm for implicit numerical integration are presented. While the proposed methods are general, we also postulate a specific model that is compared with experimental data. It employs relatively few free parameters but shows good agreement with laboratory tests. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

木里地区水合物钻孔井壁构造裂缝特征

木里地区三露天井田断层发育、岩性复杂,且钻探结果揭示水合物主要赋存于地层裂缝中,因此,笔者专门利用声成像测井资料对三露天井田水合物钻孔井壁构造裂缝进行研究,明确了研究区构造裂缝的成像测井响应特征,并从裂缝线密度、倾角、倾向等方面对裂缝的分布特征进行了分析讨论.结果 表明:①研究区水合物钻孔井壁裂缝发育,倾角以高角度为主,低角度次之,水平裂缝与高角度裂缝少见;冻土层及以上裂缝较冻土层以下更为发育.②研究区裂缝主要走向与地层断裂走向基本一致或小角度斜交,裂缝的发育受断层控制明显.③研究区裂缝倾角相对较大,不利于烃类气体的大量聚集,这可能是该区域钻孔少见水合物的原因之一.     

Response to the paper by H. Zia,B. Lecampion “Explicit versus implicit front advancing schemes for the simulation of hydraulic fracture growth” (Int. J. Numer. Anal. Methods Geomech., 2019, 43 (6), 1300–1315)

The response presents three comments, which (i) explain theoretical background for the success of the explicit front advancing scheme by Zia and Lecampion (comment 1), (ii) suggest possible extensions (comment 2), and (iii) pay attention on expected limitations of the scheme to be checked by the authors in numerical experiments (comment 3). The response does not intend to present novel results: it is entirely based on known results published in the references cited.     

Modelling the compliance of crustal rock—II. Response to temporal changes before earthquakes

There have been several claims that seismic shear waves respond to changes in stress before earthquakes. The companion paper develops a stress-sensitive model (APE) for the behaviour of low-porosity low-permeability crystalline rocks containing pervasive distributions of fluid-filled intergranular microcracks, and this paper uses APE to model the behaviour before earthquakes. Modelling with APE shows that the microgeometry and statistics of distributions of such fluid-filled microcracks respond almost immediately to changes in stress, and that the behaviour can be monitored by analysing seismic shear-wave splitting. The physical reasons for the coupling between shear-wave splitting and differential stress are discussed.
In this paper, we extend the model by using percolation theory to show that large crack densities are limited at the grain-scale level by the percolation threshold at which interacting crack clusters lead to pronounced increases in rock-matrix permeability. In the simplest formulation, the modelling is dimensionless and almost entirely constrained without free parameters. Nevertheless, APE modelling of the evolution of fluid-saturated rocks under stress reproduces the observed fracture criticality and the narrow range of shear-wave azimuthal anisotropy in crustal rocks. It also reproduces the behaviour of temporal variations in shear-wave splitting observed before and after the 1986, M = 6, North Palm Springs earthquake, Southern California, and several other smaller earthquakes.
The agreement of APE modelling with a wide range of observations confirms that fluid-saturated crystalline rocks are stress-sensitive and respond to changes in stress by critical fluid-rock interactions at the microscale level. This means that the effects of changes in stress and other parameters can be numerically modelled and monitored by appropriate observations of seismic shear waves.     

Simulation of paleotectonic stress fields and quantitative prediction of multi-period fractures in shale reservoirs: A case study of the Niutitang Formation in the Lower Cambrian in the Cen'gong block,South China

Reservoirs where tectonic fractures significantly impact fluid flow are widespread. Industrial-level shale gas production has been established from the Lower Cambrian Niutitang Formation in the Cen'gong block, South China; the practice of exploration and development of shale gas in the Cen'gong block shows that the abundance of gas in different layers and wells is closely related to the degree of development of fractures. In this study, the data obtained from outcrop, cores, and logs were used to determine the developmental characteristics of such tectonic fractures. By doing an analysis of structural evolution, acoustic emission, burial history, logging evaluation, seismic inversion, and rock mechanics tests, 3-D heterogeneous geomechanical models were established by using a finite element method (FEM) stress analysis approach to simulate paleotectonic stress fields during the Late Hercynian—Early Indo-Chinese and Middle-Late Yanshanian periods. The effects of faulting, folding, and variations of mechanical parameters on the development of fractures could then be identified. A fracture density calculation model was established to determine the quantitative development of fractures in different stages and layers. Favorable areas for shale gas exploration were determined by examining the relationship between fracture density and gas content of three wells. The simulation results indicate the magnitude of minimum principal stress during the Late Hercynian — Early Indo-Chinese period within the Cen'gong block is −100 ∼ −110 MPa with a direction of SE-NW (140°–320°), and the magnitude of the maximum principal stress during the Middle-Late Yanshanian period within the Cen'gong block is 150–170 MPa with a direction of NNW-SSE (345°–165°). During the Late Hercynian — Early Indo-Chinese period, the mechanical parameters and faults play an important role in the development of fractures, and fractures at the downthrown side of the fault are more developed than those at the uplifted side; folding plays an important role in the development of fractures in the Middle-Late Yanshanian period, and faulting is a secondary control. This 3-D heterogeneous geomechanical modelling method and fracture density calculation modelling are not only significant for prediction of shale fractures in complex structural areas, but also have a practical significance for the prediction of other reservoir fractures.     

初始裂隙对岩溶水紊流形成的影响

岩溶地区地下发育着大量的溶洞和地下河管道,地下水流状态既有层流也有紊流,而紊流是溶洞管道形成的重要条件。紊流的形成受到岩石初始裂隙的影响,初始裂隙的张开度、分布、走向、迹长、密度等因素都影响着裂隙发育过程中水流状态的变化。通过对不同统计特征的初始裂隙网络进行水流和溶蚀的数值模拟发现,以张开度标准差反映的裂隙网络非均匀性越强,模拟紊流出现的时间就越早;主要裂隙的存在使裂隙网络的非均性增强,主要裂隙与水力梯度总方向的角度越小,紊流出现的时间就越早;当裂隙平均迹长过小时会导致裂隙连通性较差,影响裂隙水流和溶蚀作用;裂隙密度,尤其是主要裂隙密度,对岩溶发育的影响较大。相对于次要裂隙,如果主要裂隙密度偏小,紊流形成时间会大大增加,甚至很难形成紊流。当初始裂隙张开度小于0.001 cm,增大水力梯度仍没有紊流发生,岩溶几乎不发育。     

Kinematics of throughgoing fractures in jointed rocks

Throughgoing fractures play a major role in subsurface fluid flow yet the kinematics of their formation, which directly impact rock flow properties, are often difficult to establish. We investigate throughgoing fractures in the Monterey Formation of California that developed by the coalescence of pre-existing joints. At Lompoc Landing, throughgoing fractures fall into three main groups: linked, linked with aperture, and breccia zones. The segmented nature of their walls provides numerous piercing points to firmly establish the sense of displacement. Analysis of displacement vectors derived from piercing points demonstrates that the NW–SE trending throughgoing fractures, often interpreted as strike–slip faults, are in fact extensional structures in origin. We suggest that this method may be applied to throughgoing fractures that form by the same mechanism in other geologic settings. Establishing kinematics of throughgoing fractures will lead to a better understanding of their contribution to subsurface fluid flow.