Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 989e992

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Journal of Rock Mechanics and

Geotechnical Engineering
journal homepage: www.rockgeotech.org

Discussion and Discovery

Limit of crustal drilling depth

Y.S. Zhao a, Z.J. Feng a, *, B.P. Xi a, D. Yang a, W.G. Liang a, Z.J. Wan b
a
Key Laboratory of In Situ Property-improving Mining of Ministry of Education, Taiyuan University of Technology, Taiyuan, 030024, China
b
College of Mining Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221008, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Deep drilling is becoming the direct and the most efficient means in exploiting deep mineral resources,
Received 23 December 2016 facilitating to understanding the earthquake mechanism and performing other scientific researches on
Received in revised form the Earth’s crust. In order to understand the limit of drilling depth in the Earth’s crust, we first conducted
20 April 2017
tests on granite samples with respect to the borehole deformation and stability under high temperature
Accepted 8 May 2017
Available online 24 September 2017
and high pressure using the triaxial servo-controlled rock testing system. Then the critical temperature-
pressure coupling conditions that result in borehole instability are derived. Finally, based on the testing
results obtained and the requirements for the threshold values of borehole deformations during deep
Keywords:
Drilling well
drilling, the limit of drilling depth in the Earth’s crust is formulated with ground temperature.
Limit of drilling depth Ó 2017 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by
High temperature Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
High pressure licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Borehole instability

1. Introduction
In the efforts to utilize hot dry rock geothermal energy in
exploiting deep oil and gas resources, deep drilling (depth
H ¼ 4500e6000 m), ultra-deep drilling (H ¼ 6000e9000 m) and
super-deep drilling (H > 9000 m) have become the direct and most
efficient means to understand the earthquake mechanism associ-
ated with engineering geology. Recently, a huge investment on
continental scientific deep drilling has been made in many coun-
tries, such as Russia, USA, Germany, and China (Matsunaga, 1995;
Muraoka et al., 1998; Smithson et al., 2000; Cornet et al., 2007;
Elders et al., 2014). For example, the depth of Kola Peninsula
borehole Kola-3 in Russia reached 12,262 m, and the borehole KTB-
HB in Germany reached a depth of 9101 m (Haimson and Chang,
2002). As is known, deep drilling basically involves underground
rocks with high temperature and high pressure. Subsequently, a
series of risks such as necking, creeping, instability, and collapsing
of borehole has been reported (Heuze, 1983; David et al., 1999) due
to significant decrease in rock strength and increase in borehole
deformation during drilling process under such conditions. This can
greatly increase the cost of borehole drilling and its maintenance,
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: y-s-zhao@263.net (Y.S. Zhao), fzj3893811@126.com (Z.J. Feng).
Peer review under responsibility of Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics,
Chinese Academy of Sciences.
which in some extreme cases can stop the projects being carried
out. In this text, we aims to find out the relationship of borehole
wall deformation and borehole instability under high temperature
and high pressure conditions, and then a limit of drilling depth is
expected.
2. Materials and methods
The details of the testing system are described by Zhao et al.
(2012). The granite specimens used in the test are sampled from
Pingyi, Shandong Province, China. The granite specimens are hard
and intact, containing no joints and fractures. Cylinder specimens
were prepared in the size of f200 mm  400 mm. For each spec-
imen, a hole with diameter of 40 mm was drilled along the cylinder
axis. The deformation of the borehole in the tests was measured
using optical methods. Three specimens have been tested under the
hydrostatic pressures below 150 MPa and temperatures below
600  C in order to understand the borehole deformation pattern in
terms of critical conditions.
During the tests, the hydrostatic pressure (equal axial and
confining pressures) was applied to the specimen, and no pressure
is imposed on the borehole. Each specimen was heated to the target
temperatures gradually. At each step, the levels of temperature and
pressure were kept constant for a certain period, during which the
deformation of borehole was measured. The tests for each spec-
imen lasted for more than 400 h.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrmge.2017.05.006
1674-7755 Ó 2017 Institute of Rock and Soil Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-
NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
990 Y.S. Zhao et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 989e992

3. Results
Urc ¼ 0:22767 expð0:004454s þ 0:00483TÞ (1)
Fig. 1 shows the borehole deformation of the specimens #1, #2
and #3 measured at each level. It indicates that the borehole where Urc is the borehole radial displacement (mm), s is the hy-
aperture experiences a steady creep when the temperature is drostatic pressure on the rock specimen (MPa), and T is the tem-
below 400  C and the hydrostatic pressure is less than 100 MPa. perature ( C).
When the temperature increases to 500  C and the hydrostatic Eq. (1) indicates that the borehole displacement increases
pressure increases to 125 MPa, the borehole experiences an accel- exponentially with the temperature and the hydrostatic pressure
erated creep within the following 60 h, and eventually it fails. It is on the specimen. It implies that the temperature has almost the
also shown that the steady creep (elastic deformation and creep) of same impact on the borehole deformation as the hydrostatic
borehole changes exponentially with respect to the temperature pressure does, i.e. the borehole deformation increases significantly
and hydrostatic pressure. According to the experimental results of as either the temperature or the hydrostatic pressure increases.
the three specimens, the relationship between the deformation and
hydrostatic pressure and temperature can be fit using the least 4. Discussion
square method as follows:
The above-described testing results also reveal that the borehole
in the granite fails when the temperature and the hydrostatic
pressure are above 500  C and 125 MPa, respectively. At this stage,
the borehole gradually collapses. Figs. 2 and 3 show the change of
6 600 borehole diameter along the specimen axis measured after the tests
Deformation of borehole surface
Deformation of borehole surface (mm)

Temperature and the inside view of the collapsed borehole walls for specimen
5 Stress 500 #2, respectively. The results indicate that:
Specimen #1
Temperature (°C)

4 400 (1) The borehole deformation in the granite experiences

Stress (MPa)

different stages due to the increasing temperature and

3 300 pressure. When the temperature and the hydrostatic pres-
sure are below 400  C and 100 MPa, respectively, viscoelastic
2 200
deformation is dominant in the borehole. In this stage, the
borehole diameter tends to decrease. The borehole remains
1 100
stable and the granite specimen does not fail. Viscoelasto-
0 0 plastic deformation appears when the temperature in-
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350 400 450 creases from 400  C to 500  C and the hydrostatic pressure
Time (hr)
from 125 MPa to 150 MPa. In this stage, the borehole diam-
(a) Specimen #1.
eter increases due to the creep of granite. Small pieces fall off
6 600 the borehole wall and the borehole starts to collapse. In the
Deformation of borehole surface(mm)

Deformation of borehole surface

Temperature
5 Stress 500
Temperature (°C)

4 Specimen #2 400
Stress (MPa)

3 300

2 200

1 100

0 0
0 40 80 120 160 200 240 280 320 360
Time (hr)
(b) Specimen #2.

6 700
Deformation of borehole surface
Deformation of borehole surface (mm)

Temperature
5 Stress 600
Specimen #3
500
4
Temperature (°C)

400
Stress (MPa)

3
300
2
200
1 100

0 0
0 30 60 90 120 150
Time (hr)
(c) Specimen #3.

Fig. 1. Deformations of boreholes in rock specimens #1, #2 and #3 under different

temperatures and stresses. Fig. 2. Variation of borehole diameter along axis of the tested specimen #2.
 Y.S. Zhao et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 989e992 991

final stage, both the borehole radial deformation and the

axial deformation of rock specimens experience accelerated
creep, resulting in failure of the specimens.
(2) The critical temperature and pressure at which the borehole
fails are listed in Table 1. It can be seen that the critical
conditions of borehole in the tested granite specimens occur
when the temperature and stress are above 500  C and
125 MPa, respectively. Similar to the failure mode of rock
specimens under room temperature, the tested granite
specimens also fail with X-shaped cones, as shown in Fig. 3. A
few vertical fractures can be observed on the surface of each
specimen. Obviously, it is a shear failure mode.

The test results show that the strain of borehole before

collapsing is as large as 20% under high temperature and high
pressure. Based on the maximum principal strain theory and Eq.
(1), the relation between the critical temperature and the critical
pressure can be expressed as

scr ¼ 1:084Tcr þ 643:5 (2)

Fig. 3. Failure modes of the tested specimen #2: (a) X-shaped failure mode of granite; Given an average rock unit weight of 25 kN/m3, the hydrostatic
(b) and (c) Small pieces falling off the borehole walls.
pressure, s, is calculated as s ¼ 0.025H, where H represents the
depth of borehole (m). Eq. (2) can be written as the relationship
between the critical depth and temperature:

Table 1
Critical conditions and failure characteristics of the tested granite specimens.

Specimen Failure mode Critical hydrostatic Critical temperature ( C) Failure characteristics

pressure (MPa)

#1 Shearing 150 500 The borehole experiences necking phenomenon in the axial direction,
ranging from 100 mm to 310 mm; and the average diameter is 31.5 mm
at the necking
#2 Shearing 125 500 The borehole diameter becomes larger in the middle part of the specimen
due to necking and collapsing
#3 Shearing 150 500 Some rock fragments and shearing fractures are observed in the middle
part of the specimen

Fig. 4. Curves of limiting drilling depth and deep drilling cases.

992 Y.S. Zhao et al. / Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 9 (2017) 989e992

Table 2 Acknowledgments
Cases of deep drilling in different countries.

Country Borehole Depth (m) Maximum References The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supports by
rock the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos.
temperature ( C) 50534030 and 51404161) and the National Science Foundation for
Russia Kola-3 12,262 190 Smithson et al. (2000) Distinguished Young Scholars of China (Grant No. 51225404).
Germany KTB 9101 265 Haimson and Chang
(2002)
USA EE-3 4398 325 Matsunaga (1995)
Japan WD-1a 3729 500 Muraoka et al. (1998) References
Iceland IDDP 2072 500 Elders et al. (2014)
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in the calculation of the critical depth. However, the drilling fluid
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pressure (gH) in the borehole always helps to stabilize borehole situ stress. Journal of Geophysical Research 2002;107(B10). ETG 15-1eETG
walls during drilling. Assuming that the unit weight (g) of the 15-14.
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drilling fluid is 10 kN/m3, the inner pressure on the borehole wall is
granitic rocks e a review. International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining
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and a Poisson’s ratio (m) of 0.5, the limit of drilling depth can be Matsunaga I. Recent progress of hot dry rock geothermal energy development
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geothermal resources survey program igneous, metamorphic and hydrothermal
Hcr ¼ 72:29Tcr þ 42900 (4) processes in a wall encountering 500  C at 3729 m depth, Kakonda, Japan.
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(Table 2). They indicate the limit of drilling depth that the human Tectonophysics 2000;329(1e4):301e17.
Zhao YS, Wan ZJ, Feng ZJ, Yang D, Zhang Y, Qu F. Triaxial compression system for
being can reach in exploring the Earth’s crust under high temper- rock testing under high temperature and high pressure. International Journal of
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gradient is, the deeper the drilling reaches. For example, the drilling
depth of borehole Kola-3 in Russia was 12,262 m with ground
temperature of 190  C at the bottom of borehole. In another case, Dr. Yangsheng Zhao is currently a Professor in the
the drilling depth of borehole WD-1a in Japan only reached 3729 m Department of Mining Engineering at Taiyuan University
even though many engineering measures have been taken, due to of Technology. He was the Cheung Kong Scholar Professor
at China University of Mining and Technology. He is now
ground temperature of 500  C. The expected depth limit of crustal the director of Key Laboratory of In Situ Property-
drilling proposed in this paper may provide some guidelines for improving Mining of Ministry of Education in China. His
future super-deep drilling planning and practice. main research activities are (1) thermo-hydro-mechano-
chemical (THMC) coupling behaviors of rock masses and
porous rock materials; (2) development of unconventional
5. Conclusions geo-resources and geo-energy such as hot dry rock (HDR)
geothermal energy and rock salt deposit; and (3) rock me-
chanics and testing technique at high temperature and
Based on the critical ground temperature and pressure coupling high pressure. Now he is a member of International Soci-
condition with respect to borehole instability, the parameters for ety for Pore Media, board member of International Society
borehole deformation thresholds during deep drilling are obtained for Rock Mechanics, executive board member of Chinese Society for Rock Mechanics
and Engineering (CSRME), president of the Shanxi Province Society for Rock Mechanics
and the limit of drilling depth in the earth crust is formulated with and Engineering of CSRME, editorial board member of Chinese Journal of Rock Me-
ground temperature. The testing results in this context show that chanics and Engineering. Prof. Zhao has authored/co-authored over 300 peer-
borehole deformation under high temperature and high pressure reviewed journal papers and five books about the theory and practice of geo-energy
and geo-resource development.
experiences steady and accelerated creep stages, which increases
exponentially with the temperature and hydrostatic pressure. The
temperature has almost the same impact on the borehole defor-
mation as the hydrostatic pressure does. The borehole is instable Dr. Zijun Feng is currently an Associate Professor in the
Department of Mining Engineering at Taiyuan University
when the temperature increases to 500  C and the hydrostatic of Technology. He graduated from China University of
pressure increases to 125 MPa. Mining and Technology with BS and MS degrees in Mining
Engineering. He obtained his PhD degree in Mining Engi-
neering of Taiyuan University of Technology in 2012. Dr.
Conflict of interest
Feng’s research focuses on rock mechanical and hydraulic
behaviors at high temperature and high pressure. Dr. Feng
The authors wish to confirm that there are no known conflicts of has authored/co-authored over 40 peer-reviewed journal
interest associated with this publication and there has been no papers and a book as co-author about mechanical behavior
of coal at thermo-mechanical coupling.
significant financial support for this work that could have influ-
enced its outcome.