Stimulation rock mechanics

Importance of rock mechanics

1. drilling – ROP, lost circulation, hole problems and eccentricity

2. cementing – unwanted fracturing, displacement rate

3. sand control – formation strength and gravel placement

4. hydraulic fracturing
a. fracture initiation and propagation
b. fracture geometry
c. proppant strength
d. fracture conductivity

5. reservoir engineering – porosity and permeability as a function of rock

mechanics
Stimulation rock mechanics

1. Stress Stress, 
P
A
Load or Force

Area l
L
– Normal and shear components
– Orthogonal principal directions

2. Strain
Strain, 
change in length l
 
original length L

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Stimulation rock mechanics
3. Stress – Strain Relationship
Stress,  Failure
• Assume rock behaves as a linear III
elastic material

4. Young’s Modulus
II
stress 
E  
strain 

• Amount of strain for a given stress

is function of stiffness of the I
material Strain, 
• Tangent modulus
• Range for rock: 0.5-12 x 106 psi
• Governs the width of the fracture
and the height growth

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Stimulation rock mechanics
5. Poisson’s Ratio
x
lateral strain  x  undeformed deformed
y L
  y
p
axial strain  y  d
x d
x
• Range:
L
Lms 0.15
Ss 0.25
Steel 0.30
Shale 0.40 y/2
Salt 0.50

• Importance in insitu stress

distribution

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Stimulation rock mechanics

6. Shear modulus
applied shear stress  F
G 
angle of deformation 

• Measure of the rigidity of the F
material
• Computed from:

E
G
2(1  )

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Stimulation rock mechanics

7. Bulk Modulus F
hydrostatic pressure
K
volumetric strain
F
• Inverse of compressibility
• Measured or computed by: F
E
K
3(1  2)

• Component of poroelastic
models

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Stimulation rock mechanics
Pore Pressure And Effective Stress
• Pore fluids support a portion of the total applied
stress
 total   pore   effective stress 
   
stress   pressure carried by grains  pore
 t  ap p   e

• Poroelastic constant, a, describes the efficiency grain

of the fluid pressure.

F(pore geometry, solid physical properties)

Force
0a 1

where,
a = 1 for failure
a  1 for deformation
a = 0.7 common for petroleum reservoirs

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Stimulation rock mechanics
Fracture toughness
• pre-existing defects in a rock induce high stress concentrations and
becomes the nucleus for crack propagation.
Kc
Rock types
• Measure of the resistance of the rock to crack psi -in1/2
cozzette sandstone 1,430
Mesaverde 1,230
critical critical stress intensity factor
 Mancos shale 1,300
stress   size of largest defect 1 / 2 Indiana Limestone
Westerly granite
845
2,365
Devonian shale 750 to 1200
Green River oil shale 730 to 1000
or Benson Sand 1440 to 1580
Benson shale 530
kc
c  From SPE monograph Vol 12

ac

where kc is experimentally determined and has units of psi * (length)1/2

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Stimulation hydraulic fracturing

Pressures, stresses and rock properties involved in vertical fracture propagation

(Allen & Roberts, 1982)

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Stimulation insitu stresses

Overburden Stress, v
Vertical stress = overburden pressure
z
 v    z gdz v
0
Effective vertical stress given by: h1
 ve   v  ap p h2
z
How obtain?
• Integrate density log
• Assume typical overburden
gradient = 0.9 to 1.1 psi/ft

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Stimulation insitu stresses
Horizontal Stress, h
General Equation:
differential horizontal  effective overburden thermal tectonic
    
 effective stress   stress   stress   strains 
  Ea 
d   ap  
E
d  dT  d  d
eh i 1   z p 1  1 
2 i
1 
2 j
simplify to:

x 

1 
 pob  ap p  p p

Minimum horizontal stress from a horizontal-

constrained elastic model
Terzaghi Equation v
Assumes: h1
• No tensile strength
• Isothermal h2
• No tectonic stresses z
• h1 = h2 ….isotropic

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Stimulation rock mechanics

Example
A reservoir is located at 10,000 ft with an overburden
gradient of 1.1 psi/ft and a pore pressure gradient of 0.6
psi/ft. Assume Biot’s constant, a = 1 and Poisson’s ratio,
 = 0.25.

a. Vertical effective stress, ve

b. Minimum principle insitu stress, hmin
c. Effective minimum principle stress, ehmin
d. If pore pressure = 1000 psi, what is the minimum
effective stress, hmin

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 Stimulation insitu stresses

Tectonic stresses
Original ground surface
v shift
• Vectorially added  Current ground surface

• Leads to unequal horizontal stress

components Shift due to
addition of
• Implications to hydraulic fracturing tectonic stress

depth
1. Induced fractures align perpendicular to
minimum principal stress
a. At shallow depths (1 to 2000 ft), h > v, thus
horizontal fractures are induced.
b. At deeper depths, h < v, thus vertical
fractures are induced. hmin hmax ov = 1.1 psi/ft

2. Stress contrast of various lithologies will

affect fracture height growth/containment

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Stimulation insitu stresses
Induced stress at borehole
• Drilling of a borehole distorts the preexisting stress field
• To maintain load, the stress concentration must increase around the
wellbore as rock is removed.
• Stress concentrations decrease exponentially away from the wellbore

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Stimulation insitu stresses

Fracture propagates outward away from high-compressive stress

concentration at the wellbore (Allen & Roberts, 1982)
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Stimulation insitu stresses
Stress profile
hmin

shale
depth

sand

shale
pf1 pf2
pf1 pf2

* Very important for frac height containment

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Stimulation insitu stresses

• How obtain horizontal stress?

• Field measurements
• Microfrac tests
• Steprate/flowback tests
• Shutin tests

• Calculate from x 

1 
pob  ap p  p p

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 Stimulation hydraulic fracturing

Fracture closed
Breakdown Pressure
Start Sand

perforations
Breakdown

Shut down
• the pressure required to initiate the fracture

pumping
Sand to • Must exceed the minimum stress at the borehole and the tensile
strength of the rock.
Pad Volume Sand Placement in Fracture Frac
Closure Time

Constant pump rate, increasing sand concentration

Pressure rise reflecting normal frac extension
Extension or propagation pressure
• the pressure required to extend the existing fracture

Tubing friction pressure loss

Closure pressure
Pressure

• the pressure required to hold the fracture open

Fracture Closure Pressure-Hydrostatic • Equivalent and counteracts the minimum principal
insitu stress; pc  hmin
• Approximated by PISIP  Pc.

Reservoir Pressure-Hydrostatic
Net fracture pressure
• pressure in fracture in excess of closure pressure
p = Pf - Pc
Time

Idealized surface pressure during hydraulic fracture treatment

(Allen & Roberts, 1982)

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