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U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Explosively produced fracture of oil shale. Progress report, October-December 1982

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:5526683

The Los Alamos National Laboratory is conducting rock fragmentation research in oil shale to develop the blasting and fluid-flow technologies required to prepare a rubble bed for a modified in situ retort. The first section of this report details the continued planning for the DOE/Sandia/Los Alamos joint rock fragmentation program, including preliminary designs for the first stemming tests and the blasting mat experiment. Section I also describes our current and planned computer modeling program for rock fracture, tracer flow, and oil shale retorting. The second section presents three papers, two on computer modeling and theory and one on oil shale field experiments. The first describes the Bedded Crack Model and its theoretical basis. The second discusses a two-dimensional numerical model of underground oil shale retorting that fully couples retorting chemistry with fluid and heat flow. This paper condenses the code documentation manual, which will be published separately with a user's guide. The third paper focuses on the empirical characterization of 200 cratering experiments conducted in Piceance Creek Basin oil shale, evaluates scaling laws as a tool to predict large-scale experiment results, and investigates the influence of geology and shale grade on rock fragmentation.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Lab., NM (USA)
DOE Contract Number:
W-7405-ENG-36
OSTI ID:
5526683
Report Number(s):
LA-9678-PR; ON: DE84002270
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English