CT scanning and flow measurements of shale fractures after multiple shearing events

Crandall, Dustin; Moore, Johnathan; Gill, Magdalena; Stadelman, Matthew

doi:10.1016/j.ijrmms.2017.10.016

Title: CT scanning and flow measurements of shale fractures after multiple shearing events

Journal Article · Sun Nov 05 00:00:00 EDT 2017 · International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2017.10.016· OSTI ID:1440317

Crandall, Dustin ^[1]; Moore, Johnathan ^[2]; Gill, Magdalena ^[3]; Stadelman, Matthew ^[4]

National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States)
National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); AECOM, Morgantown, WV (United States)
National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); ; AECOM, Morgantown, WV (United States)
National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); The MITRE Corp., McLean, VA (United States)

A shearing apparatus was used in conjunction with a Hassler-style core holder to incrementally shear fractured shale cores while maintaining various confining pressures. Computed tomography scans were performed after each shearing event, and were used to obtain information on evolving fracture geometry. Fracture transmissivity was measured after each shearing event to understand the hydrodynamic response to the evolving fracture structure. The digital fracture volumes were used to perform laminar single phase flow simulations (local cubic law with a tapered plate correction model) to qualitatively examine small scale flow path variations within the altered fractures. Fractures were found to generally increase in aperture after several shear slip events, with corresponding transmissivity increases. Lower confining pressure resulted in a fracture more prone to episodic mechanical failure and sudden changes in transmissivity. Conversely, higher confining pressures resulted in a system where, after an initial setting of the fracture surfaces, changes to the fracture geometry and transmissivity occurred gradually. Flow paths within the fractures are largely controlled by the location and evolution of zero aperture locations. Lastly, a reduction in the number of primary flow pathways through the fracture, and an increase in their width, was observed during all shearing tests.

View Accepted Manuscript (DOE)

View Accepted Manuscript (Publisher)

Cite

Export

Save

Research Organization:: National Energy Technology Lab. (NETL), Morgantown, WV (United States); Oak Ridge Inst. for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: USDOE

OSTI ID:: 1440317

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1409310; OSTI ID: 1549449

Report Number(s):: NETL-PUB-20420; PII: S136516091630449X

Journal Information:: International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 100, Issue C; ISSN 1365-1609

Publisher:: ElsevierCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Citation Metrics:

Cited by: 36 works

Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (39)

Characterizing flow and transport in fractured geological media: A review Berkowitz, Brian Advances in Water Resources, Vol. 25, Issue 8-12 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0309-1708(02)00042-8	journal	August 2002
Hydraulic conductivity of rock fractures Zimmerman, RobertW.; Bodvarsson, GudmundurS. Transport in Porous Media, Vol. 23, Issue 1 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00145263	journal	April 1996
Measurement of aperture distribution, capillary pressure, relative permeability, and in situ saturation in a rock fracture using computed tomography scanning Bertels, Stephanie P.; DiCarlo, David A.; Blunt, Martin J. Water Resources Research, Vol. 37, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1029/2000WR900316	journal	March 2001
Fluid flow in synthetic rough-walled fractures: Navier-Stokes, Stokes, and local cubic law simulations: FLUID FLOW IN ROUGH-WALLED FRACTURES Brush, David J.; Thomson, Neil R. Water Resources Research, Vol. 39, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1029/2002WR001346	journal	April 2003
Fracture-permeability behavior of shale Carey, J. William; Lei, Zhou; Rougier, Esteban Journal of Unconventional Oil and Gas Resources, Vol. 11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.juogr.2015.04.003	journal	September 2015
Numerical simulations examining the relationship between wall-roughness and fluid flow in rock fractures Crandall, Dustin; Bromhal, Grant; Karpyn, Zuleima T. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 47, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2010.03.015	journal	July 2010
Fracture network versus single fractures: Measurement of fracture geometry with X-ray tomography Montemagno, C. D.; Pyrak-Nolte, L. J. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Part A: Solid Earth and Geodesy, Vol. 24, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1464-1895(99)00082-4	journal	January 1999
Flow in rock fractures: The local cubic law assumption reexamined Oron, Assaf P.; Berkowitz, Brian Water Resources Research, Vol. 34, Issue 11 https://doi.org/10.1029/98WR02285	journal	November 1998
X-ray CT based numerical analysis of fracture flow for core samples under various confining pressures Watanabe, Noriaki; Ishibashi, Takuya; Ohsaki, Yutaka Engineering Geology, Vol. 123, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2011.09.010	journal	November 2011
Observations of a potential size effect in experimental determination of the hydraulic properties of fractures Witherspoon, P. A.; Amick, C. H.; Gale, J. E. Water Resources Research, Vol. 15, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1029/WR015i005p01142	journal	October 1979
Elements of a best practices approach to induced seismicity in geologic storage Myer, Larry R.; Daley, Thomas M. Energy Procedia, Vol. 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2011.02.303	journal	January 2011
Earthquake triggering and large-scale geologic storage of carbon dioxide Zoback, M. D.; Gorelick, S. M. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 109, Issue 26 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1202473109	journal	June 2012
Using Microseismicity to Estimate Formation Permeability for Geological Storage of CO ₂ Angus, D. A.; Verdon, J. P. ISRN Geophysics, Vol. 2013 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/160758	journal	February 2013
Hydromechanical response of a fracture undergoing compression and shear Olsson, W. A.; Brown, S. R. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences & Geomechanics Abstracts, Vol. 30, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-9062(93)90034-B	journal	December 1993
Effect of shear displacement on the aperture and permeability of a rock fracture Yeo, I. W.; de Freitas, M. H.; Zimmerman, R. W. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 35, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-9062(98)00165-X	journal	December 1998
Mechanical and hydraulic coupling of injection-induced slip along pre-existing fractures Nemoto, Katsumi; Moriya, Hirokazu; Niitsuma, Hiroaki Geothermics, Vol. 37, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geothermics.2007.11.001	journal	April 2008
Hydraulic Characteristics of Rough Fractures in Linear Flow under Normal and Shear Load Lee, H. S.; Cho, T. F. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, Vol. 35, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-002-0028-y	journal	October 2002
Strength, deformation and conductivity coupling of rock joints Barton, N.; Bandis, S.; Bakhtar, K. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences & Geomechanics Abstracts, Vol. 22, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-9062(85)93227-9	journal	June 1985
Flow channeling in a single fracture induced by shear displacement Auradou, Harold; Drazer, German; Boschan, Alejandro Geothermics, Vol. 35, Issue 5-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geothermics.2006.11.004	journal	October 2006
Influence of fracture geometry on shear behavior Gentier, S.; Riss, J.; Archambault, G. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 37, Issue 1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1365-1609(99)00096-9	journal	January 2000
Shear mechanism of rock joints under pre-peak cyclic loading condition Fathi, Ali; Moradian, Zabihallah; Rivard, Patrice International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 83 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2016.01.009	journal	March 2016
Geometric Effect of Asperities on Shear Mechanism of Rock Joints Fathi, Ali; Moradian, Zabihallah; Rivard, Patrice Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, Vol. 49, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-015-0799-6	journal	August 2015
Effect of shear displacement on the hydraulic conductivity of a fracture Matsuki, K.; Kimura, Y.; Sakaguchi, K. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 47, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2009.10.002	journal	April 2010
Development of a shear-flow test apparatus and determination of coupled properties for a single rock joint Esaki, T.; Du, S.; Mitani, Y. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 36, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0148-9062(99)00044-3	journal	July 1999
Evaluation Of Fluid Flow Field In Single Rock Fracture During Frictional Sliding Nemoto, K.; Watanabe, N.; Tsuchiya, N. 2007, AIP Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2896957	conference	January 2008
Experimental and numerical study of the geometrical and hydraulic characteristics of a single rock fracture during shear Xiong, Xiangbin; Li, Bo; Jiang, Yujing International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 48, Issue 8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2011.09.009	journal	December 2011
An improved model for hydromechanical coupling during shearing of rock joints Olsson, R.; Barton, N. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 38, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1016/S1365-1609(00)00079-4	journal	April 2001
Rock Joint Surfaces Measurement and Analysis of Aperture Distribution under Different Normal and Shear Loading using GIS Sharifzadeh, M.; Mitani, Y.; Esaki, T. Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, Vol. 41, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-006-0115-6	journal	October 2006
An Investigation of Discontinuity Roughness Scale Dependency Using High-Resolution Surface Measurements Tatone, Bryan S. A.; Grasselli, Giovanni Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering, Vol. 46, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-012-0294-2	journal	August 2012
Numerical method for the determination of contact areas of a rock joint under normal and shear loads Park, Jung-Wook; Song, Jae-Joon International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences, Vol. 58 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijrmms.2012.10.001	journal	February 2013
Modeling surface roughness degradation of rock joint wall during monotonic and cyclic shearing Belem, Tikou; Souley, Mountaka; Homand, Françoise Acta Geotechnica, Vol. 2, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-007-0039-7	journal	November 2007
Shear-Induced Flow Channels in a Single Rock Fracture and Their Effect on Solute Transport Vilarrasa, Victor; Koyama, Tomofumi; Neretnieks, Ivars Transport in Porous Media, Vol. 87, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11242-010-9698-1	journal	December 2010
High-resolution X-ray computed tomography in geosciences: A review of the current technology and applications Cnudde, V.; Boone, M. N. Earth-Science Reviews, Vol. 123 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2013.04.003	journal	August 2013
Quantitative 3D-fracture analysis by means of microfocus X-Ray Computer Tomography (µCT): An example from coal Van Geet, Maarten; Swennen, Rudy Geophysical Research Letters, Vol. 28, Issue 17 https://doi.org/10.1029/2001GL013247	journal	September 2001
Evolution of Strength and Permeability in Stressed Fractures with Fluid–Rock Interactions Zhong, Zhen; Elsworth, Derek; Hu, Yunjin Pure and Applied Geophysics, Vol. 173, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-015-1099-5	journal	May 2015
Frictional stability-permeability relationships for fractures in shales: Friction-Permeability Relationships Fang, Yi; Elsworth, Derek; Wang, Chaoyi Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 122, Issue 3 https://doi.org/10.1002/2016JB013435	journal	March 2017
Fractal analysis of fracture: A comparison of dimension estimates Dougan, L. T.; Addison, P. S.; McKenzie, W. M. C. Mechanics Research Communications, Vol. 27, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1016/S0093-6413(00)00108-7	journal	July 2000
Validity of Cubic Law for fluid flow in a deformable rock fracture Witherspoon, P. A.; Wang, J. S. Y.; Iwai, K. Water Resources Research, Vol. 16, Issue 6 https://doi.org/10.1029/WR016i006p01016	journal	December 1980
Evaluation of cubic law based models describing single-phase flow through a rough-walled fracture: EVALUATION OF CUBIC LAW BASED MODELS Konzuk, Julie S.; Kueper, Bernard H. Water Resources Research, Vol. 40, Issue 2 https://doi.org/10.1029/2003WR002356	journal	February 2004

Cited By (3)

Design and implementation of a shearing apparatus for the experimental study of shear displacement in rocks Moore, Johnathan; Crandall, Dustin; Gill, Magdalena Review of Scientific Instruments, Vol. 89, Issue 4 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5018419	journal	April 2018
Assessment of Hydraulic Connectivity of Fractures in Mudstones by Single‐Borehole Investigations Ishii, Eiichi Water Resources Research, Vol. 54, Issue 5 https://doi.org/10.1029/2018wr022556	journal	May 2018
Spatial Mapping of Fracture Aperture Changes With Shear Displacement Using X‐ray Computerized Tomography Wenning, Quinn C.; Madonna, Claudio; Kurotori, Takeshi Journal of Geophysical Research: Solid Earth, Vol. 124, Issue 7 https://doi.org/10.1029/2019jb017301	journal	July 2019

Similar Records

Design and implementation of a shearing apparatus for the experimental study of shear displacement in rocks

Journal Article · Thu Apr 12 00:00:00 EDT 2018 · Review of Scientific Instruments · OSTI ID:1440317

Moore, Johnathan; Crandall, Dustin; Gill, Magdalena; +2 more

Gouge formation and dilation impacts to flow during fracture shearing

Journal Article · Sat Oct 02 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences · OSTI ID:1440317

Gill, Magdalena; Crandall, Dustin; Moore, Johnathan; +2 more

Rapid Mineral Precipitation During Shear Fracturing of Carbonate-Rich Shales

Journal Article · Mon Jun 01 00:00:00 EDT 2020 · Journal of Geophysical Research. Solid Earth · OSTI ID:1440317

Menefee, Anne Holland; Welch, Nathan James; Frash, Luke Philip; +3 more

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
25 ENERGY STORAGE
58 GEOSCIENCES
computed tomography
local cubic law
fractured seals
fracture transmissivity

Title: CT scanning and flow measurements of shale fractures after multiple shearing events

Citation Formats

References (39)

Cited By (3)

Similar Records

Related Subjects