In situ oil shale bed preparation study. Progress report, February 1976--February 1978

Technical Report · Wed Nov 01 04:00:00 EST 1978

OSTI ID:6567276

Munson, D E ^[1]

---

1. ed.

The technology for in-situ oil shale bed preparation is relatively much less well developed than some other resource recovery technologies that have been pursued for a long period of time. Development of such a technology entirely by trial and error in the field can be extremely expensive. Computer modeling has been used increasingly in connection with a number of difficult problems of this type, and offers the opportunity of assisting and speeding the development of an in-situ technology if oil shale response can be described in a reasonable way. It is the goal of the in-situ oil shale bed preparation study to provide such modeling of the mechanical response and fracture processes of rock, as they apply to rubblization in order to prepare an adequate retort. An integral part of this program is the validation of the resultant computer models against field data from rubblization experiments. A complementary effort is the use of the computer models in guiding the design and interpretation of field events. The initial successful use of computer modeling using patently crude material descriptions is most encouraging. Continuation of the program can expect to see an acceleration in the refinement of the material descriptions as the data which have been collected are assimilated and formalized in mathematical form in the computer models. These in turn will permit increasingly quantitative predictions to be made, allowing computer simulation to play an increasing role in understanding the processes of fracture and in the design of in-situ rubblization processes. The fracture nucleation, growth and coalescence models, in particular, should produce computationally convenient descriptions in the near term in which maximum use can be made of relatively simple laboratory measurements of deformation, strength and toughness.

• Research Organization: Sandia Labs., Albuquerque, NM (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: EY-76-C-04-0789
• OSTI ID: 6567276
• Report Number(s): SAND-78-1950
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

04 OIL SHALES AND TAR SANDS
040300 -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- Drilling
Fracturing & Mining
040401* -- Oil Shales & Tar Sands-- In Situ Methods
True & Modified
BITUMINOUS MATERIALS
CARBONACEOUS MATERIALS
COMMINUTION
ENERGY SOURCES
EXPLOSIVE FRACTURING
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
FOSSIL FUELS
FRACTURING
FUELS
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
HYDRAULIC FRACTURING
IN-SITU PROCESSING
IN-SITU RETORTING
OIL SHALE DEPOSITS
OIL SHALES
PROCESSING
RESOURCES
RETORTING
SITE PREPARATION