SPWLA TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL LOGGING SYMPOSIUM, JULY 8-11,

LOG DERIVED MECHANICAL PROPERTIES AND ROCK STRESS

by

G. R. Coates and S. A. Denoo

Schlumberger Well Services, Houston Texas

ABSTRACT

The mechanical properties of earth formations are important for the economics involved in drilling,
completing, and producing.
Since about 1972, attempts have been made to systematically predict these answers from well logs.
The greatest success has been in predicting sanding characteristics in a few provinces, mainly offshore
Gulf Coast.
Enterprising analysts saw other potential applications, especially as a hydraulic fracturing design aid
in the low porosity areas. The difficulties encountered were largely associated with predicting Poisson’s
ratio since the only techniques available relied on a shaliness method that was often difficult to adapt to
the formation being evaluated.
To overcome this shortcoming, an alternative solution was developed that relies on advanced log
analysis methods to predict the Iithology, and on lab data relationships that provide a tie to Poisson’s
ratio.
This paper discusses the techniques, and compares them to independent measurements as support of
such an approach.
Perturbing influences such as hydrocarbon effects, fractures, and other environmental factors are
also discussed.
The conclusion reached is primarily associated with the applications of such methods. A brief
review of the utilization of measured shear velocity is also included.

INTRODUCTION

Reservoir rocks react to stress in different ways. Very high stress levels cause some reservoirs to
crumble while it causes others to “crack”. Knowing how a rock will react to a change in its environment
can be important to the economics of drilling and completing wells.
Whenever a reservoir rock is subject to any change brought about by pressure or fluid movement, it
is put under a stress loading that can, if too severe, cause permanent change. Log derived mechanical
properties have been successful in certain instances in predicting when a rock will not tolerate the stress
brought about by high drawdown forces resulting in sand production. Although sanding predictions are
an important application of Mechanical Properties, there are other applications, such as the formation
fracture pressure, that are of great interest.
A stress analysis obtained economically over the complete reservoir section requires a continuous
information format such as that available from logs. A tie between the compressional and shear
acoustic travel time from logs can be related to the longitudinal and shear elastic moduli (L and G
respectively) by:
SPWLA TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL LOGGING SYMPOSIUM, JULY 8-11, 1980

where pb is the true formation density and VC and VS are the compressional and shear acoustic
velocities.
Ties between these two moduli can lead to a host of generally recognized mechanical properties such
as Poisson’s Ratio, Shear Modulus, Young’s Modulus, Compressibility and Bulk Modulus. The
following equations show these transforms:

Poisson’s Ratio, P= ‘&~-l~) where Rv=~

v s

Shear Modulus, G = pbv~

Bulk Modulus, k = p
‘1*-*1

Young’s Modulus, E= 2G(1 +p)

Compressibility, cb = ~

Therefore the quality of a reservoir’s stress analysis can be related to the basic, measurements of
Pb?vs?andvc. When these three variables are available, the solution is at hand. The measure of a
realistic shear velocity, however, without the use of sophisticated waveform processing has been
difficult at best,
Lab studies (Pickett, 1963) show a distinct tie between Iithology type and the shear/compressional
velocity. Adapting this to log data it is possible by utilizing advanced synergetic methods of data
processing to determine the lithology type, which with compressional velocity can be used to determine
the shear velocity. See Figure 1.
To reproduce laboratory results with in-situ measurements it is necessary to consider the influence
of clay volume, distribution and type, hydrocarbon type and saturation, the degree of mud filtrate
invasion, and the fracture location and orientation within the rock matrix.
Advanced interpretation principles using computer analysis are used to strip the compressional travel
time of its hydrocarbon and borehole effects and separate it into its matrix and clay responses. This
information, with the exact lithology type and the laminated clay model, is then used to obtain a
shear/compressional velocity ratio and subsequently the desired shear travel time.
This reconstructed shear wave velocity very closely represents the actual shear wave as obtained
from the complete sonic wavetrain recording. The influence of other variables such as fractures, matrix
changes and hydrocarbon within a reservoir will be discussed in the following examples.

EXAMPLES

Figure 2 is a SARABAND* of a Cotton Valley sand from Northeast Texas. The interval shown is a
sandstone of low to medium porosity.

* Mark of Schlumberger

2
 SPWLA TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL LOGGING SYMPOSIUM, JULY 8-11,

Figure 3, for the same well, shows a gamma ray in track 1, compressional At in track 2 and shear
travel time in tracks 2 and 3. The compressional At from BHC is compared with the At from the
complete wavetrain recording and shows very good agreement. The shear travel times shown are the
wave processed shear and the synergetically reconstructed shear. As can be seen the agreement
between these shear waves is very good, indicating the techniques are fundamentally sound. The
fractures observed on the four Dipmeter Correlation Curves (not shown) were not of sufficient
magnitude to show a large increase in the expected shear travel time.
Figure 4 is the same information shown in Figure 3 but a clean matrix value pm,= 2.68 was imposed
instead of the normal p~a = 2.65. The compressional At’s do not change but the shear At’s show
considerable change. This change in shear is a direct consequence of the model as shown in Figure 5
where a change in clean matrix density causes a different Ats/Atc to be selected. The p~a = 2.65 pass
agrees very closely to the measured shear values from the complete wavetrain recording, while some
discrepancy exists on the p~, = 2.68 pass in the zones with low shale content as indicated by the gamma
ray. The interval at 9880-90 ft shows a measured shear higher that the reconstructed value. Other
evidence suggests fractures in this interval.
Advanced interpretation methods also allow for the removal of hydrocarbon effects from the density
and compressional velocity data. The impact of this is illustrated in Figure 6; correcting for the effect of
hydrocarbons reduces the compressional travel time by about 7-8 ~sec in the gas bearing section. This
is essential to ensure that a representative value of shear is obtained.
Figure 7 shows another advantage of utilizing advanced interpretation methods and models. Here a
comparison is made of density data in a zone (9320-9330, 9350-9360 ft) of washed-out hole. This is
important for the correct prediction of shear and bulk moduli.

Figure 8 is a composite of two shales. The shale at 12100 ft shows a good sonic compressional
agreement between constructed and measured, but indicated a shear At too long. The shale at 11400 ft
shows a corrected compressional At that is too short and a shear time that is consequently too short.
The zone at 11400 ft may be an indication of an altered shale, and the shale at 12100 ft may suggest
that the laminated shale model isn’t exactly right for this interval, causing a possible error in the
computed silt content.

Many problems such as these can be minimized by utilizing the interpretative strengths of the
advanced synergetic to qualify log data.

APPLICATIONS

Tixier et al., 1973, showed that a strong correlation exists, at least in the area studied, between
sanding and the shear-bulk modulus product. While sanding itself is known to be a more complex
subject this simple product gave a quick indication of sanding potential.
The prediction of a formation break-down strength via a fracture pressure gradient is also a readily
available piece of information. The stress around the borehole can be written in terms of the over-
burden pressure, the pore pressure, Poisson’s Ratio and an unbalanced earth stress (XX).

‘tressx=l+pov+aporl+d
+xx
‘tressy=l+pov+apor[+l
Stress X = POV
SPWLA TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL LOGGING SYMPOSIUM, JULY 8-11, 1980

The over-burden pressure (P~v) can be determined by integrating the bulk density of the earth from
the surface to the zone of interest, or by using known relationships when the complete bulk density was
not recorded. Pore pressure (POr) can be predicted from mud weight by assuming the pore pressure to
be equal to the mud weight hydrostatic pressure or from special core studies.
The tensile failure of a rock can be obtained when the shearing stress reaches a point greater than
the rock’s tensile strength. This failure is known as the pressure for rock failure and is given by the
equation:

Formation Fracture Pressure = 3 (stress X) - (stress Y) + tensile strength

or=
l*lpOv+l*lapOr+
tensi’estreng’h
Failure in compression, as indicated by spalling, can sometimes be predicted by calculating the
orthogonal stress and the confining stress, and observing if these values are outside the experimentally
determined failure envelope. See Figure 9.

CONCLUSION

With this automated method of obtaining the shear wave velocity, more exact and universally
acceptable elastic reservoir properties can be obtained. Prediction of failure, whether because of high
drawdown rates, overbalanced mud systems or fracing, can now be determined more readily with
respect to the elastic moduli. With this, new methods should evolve that better answer the industries’
needs for optimum drilling, completion, and production.

4
 SPWLA TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL LOGGING SYMPOSIUM, JULY 8-11, 1
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Fig, 3 AtC from BHC vs At, derived from complete wavetrain and At, derived 4 AtC from
Fig. 13HC vs AtCderived from complete wavetrain and At, derived
from complete wavetrain vssynergetically reconstructed At, for pm,= 2.65 from complete wavetrain vssynergetically reconstructed At, forp~, = 2.68
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Fig. 6 Removal of Hydrocarbon Effects from Density and Compressional Velocity

Data
SPWLA TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL LOGGING SYMPOSIUM, JULY 8-11, 1980

920C

9300

Fig, 7 Density Corrected for Washed-Out Hole Conditions

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SPWLA TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL LOGGING SYMPOSIUM, JULY 8-11, 1980

REFERENCES

Anderson, R. A., 1976, A Review of the Elastic Solution for Fracture Pressure, American Society of
Mechanical Engineers.

Anderson, R. A., Ingram, D. S., Zanier, A. M., 1972, Fracture Pressure Gradient Determination from
Well Logs, 47th Annual Fall Meeting, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Paper SPE 4135.

Ham, Harold H., 1966, A Method of Estimating Formation Pressures from Gulf Coast Wells.

Hottman, C. E., Smith, J. H., Purcell, W. R., 1979, Relationship Among Earth Stresses, Pore Pressure,
and Drilling Problems Offshore Gulf of Alaska, J. Pet. Tech., pp. 1477-1484.

Pickett, J. R., 1963, Acoustic Character Log and their Applications in Formation Evaluation,
Transactions, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Vol. 228, pp. 659-667.

Stein, Nathan, 1975, Mechanical Properties of Friable Sands from Conventional Log Data, Society of
Petroleum Engineers, 1. Pet. Tech., pp.757-763.

Tixier, M. P., Loveless, G. W., Anderson, R. A., 1973, Estimation of Formation Strength from the
Mechanical Properties Log, 48th Annual Fall Meeting, Society of Petroleum Engineers, Paper SPE
4532.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

COATES DEN00

GEORGE R. COATES is Manager of New Product Development, Computed Interpretation

Services for Schlumberger Well Services. He received his B.S.M.E. at South Dakota State University,
and in 1964 joined Schlumberger as a Field Engineer working in the Wyoming, Montana areas. In 1971,
he was transferred to Houston to join the new Computed Log Interpretation group, moving from there
to lnterpretation Development then to Manager of the Log Interpretation Section at Schlumberger-Doll
Research, Ridgefield. In 1976 he returned to Houston. He is the author of several papers on well log
evaluation and is a member of SPE of AlME and SPWLA.
STANLEY A. DEN00 joined Schlumberger in 1971 after graduating from the University of
Wyoming with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. Field Engineer assignments were in Montana and
New Mexico and then as a Synergetic Engineer in the New Orleans Computing Center. Promotion to
Sales Engineer came in 1975 with assignments in Tulsa and Oklahoma City. Present assignment is in
New Product Development in Houston.

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