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Effect of stress on the microstructure of a graywacke sandstone from the site of the Rio Blanco gas-stimulation experiment

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/4129709· OSTI ID:4129709
Project Rio Blanco was designed to increase rock permeability in an existing gas reservoir by fracturing the rock with a vertical array of three simultaneous nuclear explosions. The project site was CER Geonuclear hole RB-E- 01, Section 14, T35, R98W, Rio Blanco County, in the Piceance Creek Basin of northwest Colorado. The most essential part of this project was to produce fracturing in, and thereby to increase the permeability of, the reservoir rock. This report contains the results of optical and scanning electron microscope (SEM) studies done on unstressed and laboratory-stressed samples of graywacke sandstone from the 6458-ft level of the emplacement hole. Laboratory-stressed samples were from uniaxial-stress and uniaxial-strain tests made as part of equation-of-state measurements used to provide input parameters for preshot code calculations. (auth)
Research Organization:
California Univ., Livermore (USA). Lawrence Livermore Lab.
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-48
NSA Number:
NSA-33-011937
OSTI ID:
4129709
Report Number(s):
UCRL--51919
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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