Sand Control 141

Another method for estimating sH utilises geomechanical modelling, where the

known principal stresses, rock strength, wellbore orientation and available wellbore
failure characteristics are used to back calculate sH values (Moos et al., 1998).
The orientation of horizontal stress directions is important for borehole stability,
fracturing and, to a lesser extent, sand production. The orientation is normally
determined from image logs that directly indicate borehole breakout or induced
fracturing. Four or six arm calliper logs can be used to determine breakout
orientations if the wellbore has low deviation (less than 51). Stress directions can also
be inferred from core using the anelastic strain recovery (ASR) method. Anelastic
recovery takes some hours or days to develop and occurs in the period immediately
after the instantaneous elastic recovery of core, which occurs during extraction. For
this technique to be effective, the core must be tested within two days of recovery.
Strain gauges are attached to the core; these measure the strain recovery in multiple
radial directions (e.g. four). These are used to calculate multiple solutions of the
strain ellipse to improve confidence. The axis of maximum strain recovery is
inferred to be parallel to the sH direction. Furthermore, during, or long after, ASR
has occurred, the p-wave velocity anisotropy (WVA) method can also be used to
determine the orientations of in situ stress-related microcracks in the rock. Two
transducers and two receivers are placed on the core sample such that one of each is
on the axis and the circumference. The p-waves are then recorded and the fastest
and slowest directions noted. The minimum p-wave direction is perpendicular to
the cracks (due to attenuation of the p-wave across the open microcracks) and this
direction is inferred to correspond to sH in vertical cores.
It should be noted that these methods assume that the microcrack alignment and
associated anisotropy are directly related to the in situ stress direction. In rocks with
a complex history of multiple tectonic events, any microcracks present may not be
simply related to the in situ stress tensor.
The effective stress (su) on the rock grains is lower than the in situ stress. The
fluid (pore) pressure acts to support the rock grains. Lower pore pressure (pp) means
greater grain-to-grain contact forces.

s0 ¼ s  app (3.15)

where a is Biot’s poroelastic constant and is defined as the ratio of the

compressibility of the rock grains (Cg) compared with the compressibility of the
bulk rock (Cb).

Cg
a¼1 (3.16)
Cb

Biot’s constant approaches 1 for porous, weak sandstones and is typically around
0.9 (Yeow et al., 2004) for many sand-prone intervals. Where there is no porosity
(e.g. some tight limestones and basement rocks), Biot’s constant is zero. Biot’s
constant can be determined in the laboratory or from failure test data that includes
at least one data point with a pore pressure and the use of Eq. (3.15).