Description: In this study, a series of hydraulic fracturing tests under different injecting conditions was performed on Pocheon granite rock to account for the evolution of hydro-mechanical behavior during the fracturing process. We investigated the effect of the fluid viscosity and pressurization rate on the fracturing process of granite. Two different type of injection fluids, water and oil, were used under different pressurization rate. Visual inspection techniques such as X-ray computed tomography and thin section imaging were employed to capture the fracture pattern together with AE monitoring. As a result, the water injection case has larger saturation zone into the formation at breakdown while the oil infiltrates only vicinity of main fracture. The AE monitoring results show that the oil injection cases have a big sudden rise in the cumulative AE hit energy during fracture propagation which is more manifest under high pressurization rate. The induced fractures are observed to be larger in aperture and less tortuous for the higher fluid viscosity and higher pressurization rate cases through thin section images. On the other hand, the sleeve testing cases yield relatively very small aperture of induced fractures.

Description: The hydraulic performance and mechanical stability of open fractures are crucial for several subsurface applications including fractured geothermal reservoirs or nuclear waste repositories. Their hydraulic and mechanical properties (fluid flow and fracture stiffness) are both strongly dependent on the fracture geometry. Any change in effective stress impacts aperture and thus the ability of fractures to promote flow. Here, we carried out flow experiments with shear displaced tensile fractures in pre-loaded, low-permeability sandstones with two different cyclic loading scenarios with up to 60 MPa hydrostatic confining pressure. During ”constant cyclic loading” (CCL) experiments, the fracture was repeatedly loaded to the same peak stress (up to 60 MPa). During ”progressive cyclic loading” (PCL) experiments, the confining pressure was progressively increased in each cycle (up to 15, 30, 45 and 60 MPa). The matrix and fracture deformation was monitored using axial and circumferential LVDT extensometers to obtain the fracture stiffness. The fracture geometry before and after the experiment was compared by calculating the aperture distribution from 3D surface scans. Initial loading with confining pressure of the fracture leads to a linear fracture specific stiffness evolution. For any subsequent stress cycles fracture stiffness shifts to a non-linear behaviour. The transition is shown to be related to a stress memory effect, similar to the ”Kaiser Effect” for acoustic emissions. Progressive cyclic loading of fractures possibly leads to less permeability reduction compared to continuous cyclic loading.

Description: Faults and fractures form the largest contrast of fluid flow in the subsurface, while their permeability is highly affected by effective pressure changes. In this experimental study, fractured low-permeability Flechtingen (Rotliegend) sandstones were cyclically loaded in a MTS tri-axial compression cell. Two different loading scenarios were considered: “continuous cyclic loading” (CCL) and “progressive cyclic loading” (PCL). During continuous cyclic loading, a displaced tensile fracture was loaded hydrostatically from 2 to 60 MPa in several repeated cycles. During progressive cyclic loading, the load was increased with a step-wise function (15, 30, 45 and 60 MPa) and unloaded after every loading step. For full elasticity of rock matrix deformation each rock sample has been preconditioned up to 65 MPa. After that, an artificial tensile fracture was introduced into the sample using the Brazilian Disk test. The fractured sample was installed into the MTS triaxial cell at a given offset of 0.5 mm and hydrostatic loading was applied accordingly. The fracture permeability was measured continuously using the cubic law calculated from the hydraulic aperture. Fracture closure was measured using LVDT extensometers during the entire experiment and the resulting fracture closure and stiffness was calculated accordingly. The total deformation of the sample was corrected by the amount of elastic deformation of the rock matrix to obtain the fracture closure only. Potential changes to the fracture surface topography before and after the experiments were analysed from high-resolution surface scans obtained by a 3D profilometer using the fringe pattern projection. The scale-independent roughness exponent was calculated using power spectral density method assuming self-affinity. The fracture aperture distribution and contact-area ratio was calculated by matching the best fitting principal planes of the bottom and top surface and applying a grid search algorithm. The results showed a “stress-memory” effect of fracture stiffness during progressive loading that can be used to identify previous stress states in fractures. This effect is characterized by a transition from a non-linear to a linear (reversible to non-reversible) behaviour of specific fracture stiffness when a previous stress-maximum is exceeded. Furthermore, the evolution of fracture permeability shows less reduction during progressive cyclic loading compared to continuous cyclic loading. The data measured during the flow-through experiment under varying effective pressure are provided in the file “MTS_data.zip”. The data are provided as separate text-files as well as in Excel format with different spreadsheets, such that each figure in the paper can be recalculated and that the underlying data is comprehensive. The name of all three rock samples is given in the file name including the type of the experiment (CCL or PCL). The fracture surfaces and the fracture aperture distributions are found within the file “Surface_data.zip”. This file contains the fracture data of each of the three rock samples as point cloud data (text-files), as well the data calculated from the surfaces.

Description: Reykjavik is almost entirely heated by geothermal energy. Yet, recent growth of the city significantly increased the heat demand. Past experiences in Iceland’s capital region showed that hydraulic stimulation of existing geothermal wells is suited to improve hydraulic performance and energy supply. However, fluid injection may also trigger felt or even damaging earthquakes, which are of concern in populated areas and pose a significant risk to stimulation operations. Consequently, soft stimulation concepts have been developed to increase geothermal well performance while minimizing environmental effects such as induced seismicity. In a demonstration project of hydraulic soft stimulation in October 2019, more than 20.000 m3 of water were injected into well RV-43 in Reykjavik in multiple stages and with different injection schemes. The hydraulic performance of the well was improved without inducing felt seismicity. An a priori seismic risk assessment was conducted and for the first time the risk was continuously updated by an adaptive traffic light system supported by a sophisticated realtime microseismic monitoring. Our results confirm that it is possible to improve the performance of geothermal wells in Reykjavik and worldwide with acceptable technical, economic, and environmental risks. Here we provide an overview of the entire stimulation project including site description, stimulation design, zonal isolation, logging, seismic risk assessment and mitigation measures, realtime seismic, hydraulic and chemical monitoring, and stimulation results and challenges.

Description: The ability to control induced seismicity in energy technologies such as geothermal heat and shale gas is an important factor in improving the safety and reducing the seismic hazard of reservoirs. As fracture propagation can be unavoidable during energy extraction, we propose a new approach that optimises the radiated seismicity and hydraulic energy during fluid injection by using cyclic- and pulse-pumping schemes. We use data from laboratory-, mine-, and field-scale injection experiments performed in granitic rock and observe that both the seismic energy and the permeability-enhancement process strongly depend on the injection style and rock type. Replacing constant-flow-rate schemes with cyclic pulse injections with variable flow rates (1) lowers the breakdown pressure, (2) modifies the magnitude-frequency distribution of seismic events, and (3) has a fundamental impact on the resulting fracture pattern. The concept of fatigue hydraulic fracturing serves as a possible explanation for such rock behaviour by making use of depressurisation phases to relax crack-tip stresses. During hydraulic fatigue, a significant portion of the hydraulic energy is converted into rock damage and fracturing. This finding may have significant implications for managing the economic and physical risks posed to communities affected by fluid-injection-induced seismicity.

Description: In this study, we investigate numerically the hydro-mechanical behavior of fractured crystalline rock due to one of the five hydraulic stimulations at the Pohang Enhanced Geothermal site in South Korea. We use the commercial code FracMan (Golder Associates) that enables studying hydro-mechanical coupled processes in fractured media in three dimensions combining the finite element method with a discrete fracture network. The software is used to simulate fluid pressure perturbation at fractures during hydraulic stimulation. Our numerical simulation shows that pressure history matching can be obtained by partitioning the treatment into separate phases. This results in adjusted stress-aperture relationships. The evolution of aperture adjustment implies that the stimulation mechanism could be a combination of hydraulic fracturing and shearing. The simulated extent of the 0.01 MPa overpressure contour at the end of the treatment equals to ∼180 m around the injection point.

Description: The ability to control fluid-injection-induced seismicity in energy technologies is an important factor for assessing the safety, the seismic hazard and the life time of reservoirs. Since fracture propagation is an unavoidable process in developing and operating reservoirs, we propose a new approach to optimize the rock fracturing process by using cyclic and/or pulse pressurization schemes. First, we performed mine-scale injection in situ tests at decameter scale in granitic rock. Second, injection protocols are later refined in the laboratory. We find that the seismic radiated energy and the permeability enhancement process strongly depend on injection style and rock type. Replacing conventional constant flow rate scheme by cyclic/pulse injection with variable flow rates (1) lowers the formation breakdown pressure, (2) modifies the seismic event distribution, and (3) has significant impact on the resulting fracture pattern. As possible explanation, we introduce the concept of fatigue hydraulic fracturing as consequence of pressure cycles and resting times during which crack tip stresses are relaxed. During hydraulic fatigue a significant portion of the hydraulic energy is converted into damage of rock. This finding appears to have potentially significant implications for managing the economic and physical risk posed by induced seismicity.