An experimental study of hydraulic fracture propagation in layered rock

Thesis/Dissertation · Mon Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1979

OSTI ID:5730571

Teufel, L W

Laboratory hydraulic fracture experiments are conducted on monolithologic and dilithologic layered rock specimens as a function of interfacial normal stress to determine the relative influence of the interfacial shear strength (due to the frictional effect of the applied normal stress) and the rock properties on either side of the interface on fracture growth across layer interfaces. In addition, photoelastic experiments are conducted on tensile cracks perpendicular to bonded and unbonded interfaces with interfacial normal stress. These experiments are commensurate with the hydraulic fracture experiments and also indicate that fracture growth across an interface is dependent on the relative shear strength of the interface with respect to the fracture-induced shear stress along the interface due to the fracture approaching the interface. Observational studies indicate that the hydraulic fractures are single discrete fractures with widths of the fracture decreasing with increasing tensile strength of rock. In tight, quartz-rich sandstones the hydraulic fracture propagates along grain boundaries, whereas in higher porosity and less quartzrich sandstones the hydraulic fractures meander around quartz grains using pore space and propagating through the clay matrix and occasionally along grain boundaries. In limestone the hydraulic fractures propagate through grains and seldom along grain boundaries. (JMT)

• OSTI ID: 5730571
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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