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Influence of Pore Fluid Pressure Diffusion on Hydraulic Fracturing.
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  • Sergey Turuntaev,
  • Evgeny Zenchenko,
  • Maria Trimonova,
  • Petr Zenchenko,
  • Nikolay Baryshnikov,
  • Anna Lukina,
  • Elena Novikova
Sergey Turuntaev
Institute of Geosphere Dynamics RAS

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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Evgeny Zenchenko
Institute of Geosphere Dynamics RAS
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Maria Trimonova
Institute of Geosphere Dynamics RAS
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Petr Zenchenko
Institute of Geosphere Dynamics RAS
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Nikolay Baryshnikov
Institute of Geosphere Dynamics RAS
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Anna Lukina
Institute of Geosphere Dynamics RAS
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Elena Novikova
Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology
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Abstract

Results of laboratory experimental study of the hydraulic fracture initiation, its propagation and closing, re-fracturing, the fluid pore pressure variations and related acoustic emission (AE) are considered. The experimental setup differs from common equipment designed for testing cores or cubic samples; it is designed for work with samples of disk form with diameter 430 mm and height 66 mm, which allows us to measure the pore pressure distributions along the sample boundary together with passive and active acoustic emission measurements (Fig.1). The experiments were conducted with artificial porous saturated samples made from gypsum-cement mixture in agreement with simulation criteria. The samples were created by filling the pressure chamber with the gypsum-cement-water mixture. After drying, the samples were saturated by gypsum water solution and loaded by three-axial stresses. To produce the fracture, mineral oil was injected with the constant rate 0.3 sm3/sec through the cased borehole. A set of experiments was conducted, in which the main stress axis orientation was changed after the first hydraulic fracture creation. Registration of the change in the amplitude of the waves passing through the fracture allowed to determine the fracture formations, its filling with fluid, the increase in the fracture opening as the injection continued, and the fracture closing after the injection was stopped. It was found that the influence of the fluid pore pressure diffusion from the point of injection is of great significance: the fracturing pressure was several megapascals higher than it should be expected. The fracture closing pressure also occurred to be higher in comparison with the case, when the pressure diffusion is neglected. It was obtained, that the AE source positions are closely related with the fracture position. It is remarkable, that we did not registered any AE outside the fracture. Comparison that fact with the results of the pore pressure measurements allows to suggest, that the pressure increase due to the viscous fluid injection is not enough to induce AE pulses at some distance from the borehole and the fracture. When the injection fluid has the same viscosity as the fluid saturating the sample, the pressure increase is sufficient to induce acoustic emission corresponding to the pore pressure increase.