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Borehole-inclusion stressmeter measurements in bedded salt

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5199393· OSTI ID:5199393

Sandia purchased borehole-inclusion stressmeters from a commercial supplier to measure in situ stress changes in bedded salt. However, the supplied stressmeters were difficult to set in place and gave erratic results in bedded salt. These problems were overcome with a new extended platen design. Also a straingaged transducer was designed which can be read with a conventional data logger. Due to the nonlinear behavior of bedded salt under uniaxial loading, a new empirical calibration scheme was devised. In essence, the stressmeters are calibrated as force transducers and this calibration curve is then used to determine the relationship between uniaxial stress changes in bedded salt and the gage's output. The stressmeter and calibration procedures have been applied under mine conditions and produced viable results. Future work will involve finite element analysis to calculate the observed behavior of the stressmeters. The response of the stressmeters in bedded salt is neither that of a true stressmeter or of a true strainmeter. However, repeatable calibrations make the gages very useful.

Research Organization:
Sandia National Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
AC04-76DP00789
OSTI ID:
5199393
Report Number(s):
SAND-79-0377
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English