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Comparison of Fatigue Hydraulic Fracturing of Granite Cores Subjected to Creep and Cyclic Injection

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Abstract

Earlier experiments have shown that cyclic hydraulic fracturing (CHF) systematically reduces the monotonic breakdown pressure (MBP). However, cyclic injection also causes a significantly longer injection time to failure as compared to the monotonic injection tests and complex fracture propagation that is hard to predict. In this study, a different injection scheme employing rock fatigue behavior, named creep injection, was tested on granite cylinders. The creep injection creates continuous pressurization under a constant borehole pressure (CBP) with a pre-defined maximum value below the MBP. Three different pressure ratios (CBP/MBP) of 0.85, 0.9 and 0.95 were tested. We found that both the CHF and hydraulic fracturing with creep injection can reduce the breakdown pressure by ca. 15 ~ 20% without confining pressure. Two mechanisms could explain the reduction: the influence of fluid infiltration within the theory of linear poroelasticity and stress corrosion within the subcritical crack growth theory. The lifetime of the granite cores subjected to creep injection is comparable with previous CHF experiments employing the same pressure ratio. In addition, the lifetime increases logarithmically when the ratio of CBP/MBP is decreased. This relationship has a high regression coefficient of R2 = 0.97, and the lifetime can be well predicted using a stress corrosion index of 70. On the contrary, CHF shows a significantly larger variance in the lifetime with a regression coefficient of R2 = 0.19 and, therefore, is hard to predict. Our results also point out that the injection scheme can modify hydraulic fracture patterns, in terms of fracture aperture, branching, and fracture propagation.

Highlights

  • Creep, cyclic, and monotonic injection are compared to understand the fatigue hydraulic fracturing of granite cores.

  • Breakdown pressure was reduced and fracture branching was created through fatigue hydraulic fracturing.

  • Fluid infiltration significantly affects hydraulic fracture propagation for long-duration fluid injection.

  • The subcritical crack growth theory can well predict the lifetime of granite subjected to creep injection but not for cyclic injection.

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Data Availability

Data will be made available on request.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the International Collaborative Research Program (2021–2023, Fundamental research) and was funded by the Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology (KICT). HH kindly acknowledges the financial support of the Helmholtz Association’s Initiative and Networking Fund for the Helmholtz Young Investigator Group ARES (contract number VH-NG-1516). APB and GL acknowledge support from the RK Mellon Faculty Fellowship in Energy. We would like to thank Sun Yeom for conducting CT scanning and 3D fracture rendering.

Funding

Hannes Hofmann, Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, 20210481-001, Li Zhuang.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources and Safety Engineering, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400044, China

    Li Zhuang

  2. Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology, 283, Goyangdae-Ro Ilsanseo-Gu, Goyang, Gyeonggi-Do, 10223, Republic of Korea

    Changlun Sun

  3. Helmholtz Centre Potsdam GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Hannes Hofmann, Arno Zang & Günter Zimmermann

  4. Technische Universität Berlin, 10623, Berlin, Germany

    Hannes Hofmann

  5. DynaFrax UG (Limited), Telegrafenberg, 14473, Potsdam, Germany

    Linmao Xie

  6. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA

    Guanyi Lu & Andrew P. Bunger

  7. Department of Chemical and Petroleum Engineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, 15261, USA

    Andrew P. Bunger

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  1. Li Zhuang
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  2. Changlun Sun
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  3. Hannes Hofmann
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Correspondence to Li Zhuang.

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Supplementary file1 Supplementary information of X-ray CT images of the fractured specimens and microscopy images of the thin sections. (PDF 4295 KB)

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Zhuang, L., Sun, C., Hofmann, H. et al. Comparison of Fatigue Hydraulic Fracturing of Granite Cores Subjected to Creep and Cyclic Injection. Rock Mech Rock Eng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-024-03870-1

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