Explosively produced fracture of oil shale. Progress report, January-March 1980

Technical Report · Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 EST 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/6621442· OSTI ID:6621442

Morris, W A ^[1]

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1. comp.

A detailed study was made for cratering experiment 78-1, fired in 1978 using a special version of the YAQUI stress wave propagation code, called the Bedded Crack Model (BCM). The BCM simplifies the calculations with the assumption that all the existing cracks are in the bedding planes of the oil shale. Determinations are made for the minimum and maximum initial crack sizes in the shale, and for experiment 78-1, the sensitivity of crater formation to crack size is shown for its depth of burial. The crater profiles predicted with this model are in excellent agreement with the experiment. Also, a description is given for a method for numerical modeling of rock fragmentation that has been developed using a statistical approach to estimate the effect of flaws on rock masses. This approach has the advantage over plasticity models because it accounts for both strain-rate and crack-size effects without introducing additional parameters and makes use of fundamental physical ideas concerning the behavior of cracks rather than empirical data fitting. The general theory accounts for the effects of open cracks and closed cracks separately, with the effect of interfacial friction on closed cracks playing an important role. In addition, a method is shown that will allow inference of the three-dimensional distribution of cracks in rock media from the distribution on an outcropping.

• Research Organization: Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
• DOE Contract Number: W-7405-ENG-36
• OSTI ID: 6621442
• Report Number(s): LA-8501-PR
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
OIL SHALES
EXPLOSIVE FRACTURING
COMPUTERIZED SIMULATION
CRACKS
CRATERING EXPLOSIONS
FRAGMENTATION
ROCKS
SIZE
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COMMINUTION
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPLOSIONS
FOSSIL FUELS
FRACTURING
FUELS
MATERIALS
SIMULATION
040300* - Oil Shales & Tar Sands- Drilling
Fracturing & Mining