Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Petroleum Research
journal homepage: http://www.keaipublishing.com/en/journals/
petroleum-research/

Experimental study on the geomechanical properties and failure

behaviour of interbedded shale during SAGD operation
Shengfei Zhang*, Xiuluan Li, Hongzhuang Wang
PetroChina Research Institute of Petroleum Exploration and Development, Beijing, 100083, China

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Interbedded shale (IBS) impedes the development of a steam chamber and poses a serious threat to the
Received 26 May 2020 success of any steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) operation in a heavy-oil reservoir. Breaking up IBS
Received in revised form has been a continual challenge for the industry. This study summarizes experimental studies on the
20 June 2020
geomechanical properties and failure behaviour of IBS during thermal stimulation. IBS cores were
Accepted 22 June 2020
collected by means of fully sealed coring in northwestern China. Mineral composition analysis, porosity,
Available online 8 July 2020
and permeability measurement, as well as imbibition tests, were initiated to evaluate the potential of
imbibition. First, shear failure behaviour was studied through triaxial compression tests. Second, pore
Keywords:
Interbedded shale
structure and failure processes of IBS were investigated through thermal stimulation experiments.
Geomechanical Mudstone IBS was considered as the focus. Its porosity was approximately 7% and permeability was
Thermal loading approximately 100 nD while in-situ stress was applied. Although IBS contained considerable smectite
CT scanning components, it didn’t disintegrate under high-effective stress. Last, shear failure behaviour of IBS was
SAGD observed by computer tomography (CT) scanning when IBS was heated up to 180
C under constant
radial confining pressure and axial constraint of strain. While imbibition causes disintegration of IBS, it is
unlikely when under in-situ stress conditions. Fortunately, shear failure can be achieved under uniaxial
boundary conditions with rapid heating.
© 2020 Chinese Petroleum Society. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi. This is an open
access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

1. Introduction
Interbedded shale (IBS) significantly impedes the vertical
growth of any steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD) chamber
(ITO et al., 2004). In general, it yields low operational performance
in heterogeneous reservoirs, which has gradually drawn the
attention of industry and academia. Yang and Butler (1992) are the
first to conduct a physical simulation that studied the effect of
relative position and size of IBS on SAGD performance; the authors
conclude that IBS located above the injector forces the steam
chamber to detour, which largely delays the rising process of the
chamber. Because then, breaking IBS to facilitate fluid flow is an
objective pursued by leaders in the industry. The conditions leading
to caprock integrity issues (Carlson, 2012; Collins et al., 2011; ERCB,
2010; Walters et al., 2012; Yuan et al., 2011) are exactly those that
promoted the potential failure of IBS. Conventional ideas like dril-
ling a slim hole, vertical well, tunnel, or fishbone well fail to meet
the challenge of identifying the location of IBS precisely.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: szhang7@petrochina.com.cn (S. Zhang).
Alternatively, the in-situ method is more feasible and the majority
of pervious work reported in the public domain fall into this cate-
gory. As is well known, rock failure takes place normally in the
forms of shear and tensile failure (Carlson, 2003; Collins, 2005;
Dusseault and Collins, 2008). Shear failure is especially common in
anisotropic stress conditions. Accompanying this concept, the
uniaxial boundary condition is widely integrated (Walters et al.,
2012). In addition, failure criteria are another important ingre-
dient in shear failure study. Models like Mohr-Coloumb (Carlson,
2003; Collins, 2005; Dusseault and Collins, 2008) and Drucker-
Prager (Yang et al., 2013; Yuan et al., 2011) are generally used in
previous academic research. The former model is used widely in
engineering activities while the latter is commonly adopted for
numerical simulation (Du and Wong, 2010; IPEK et al., 2008).
Tensile failure is also possible in certain unloading conditions (XU
et al., 2011). As we already know, IBS failure alone doesn’t allow
steam penetration under compression conditions. It is necessary to
study the post-failure behaviour of IBS, especially the permeability
increment. Li and Chalaturnylk (2006) find a relation between
permeability and volumetric strain. This essentially bridges the gap
between reservoir engineering and geomechanical research, and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptlrs.2020.06.004
2096-2495/© 2020 Chinese Petroleum Society. Publishing Services by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of KeAi. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
278 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288
helps to explain permeability enhancement following failure.
Apart from numerical simulations, physical experiments also
provided valuable insight that address IBS issues. Collins (2011) and
Carlson et al. (Carlson, 2003; Collins et al., 2011) demonstrat the
proper methods to core, store, and prepare core plugs for experi-
ments. Collins (2005) reviews the work at an underground test
facility project and concludes that stress fronts propagated signif-
icantly ahead of temperature and pressure fronts. This finding in-
dicates that IBS could be broken by means other than by fluid
injection. One of the most feasible approaches is thermal stimula-
tion, which already exists in SAGD operations. Heat is one of the
most important components in a thermal stimulation process and
heat transfer consistently exists in IBS no matter if steam or hot
water is used. In contrast, injected fluid would not penetrate IBS
that has extremely low porosity and permeability, nor would it alter
the stress condition efficiently. Yuan ((Yuan et al., 2011a; Yuan et al.,
2011b)) conduct laboratory tests which show both shear and tensile
failure of IBS during thermal loading, and argue that the stress path
and loading history was important and might lead to thermal
contraction or thermal expansion. Thermal expansion is critical in
the thermal stimulation process (AGAR et al., 1983; BUTLER, 1986),
which resulted in a pore pressure increase. To what extent this
factor affects the strength of IBS depended on the competition
between thermal expansion and pressure dissipation. On the other
hand, the thermal contraction of shale is also extensively studied
(Bois et al., 2011; Li and Wong, 2013) and fractures develop under
certain conditions. Hueckel (Hueckel and Baldi, 1990; Hueckel and
Borsetto, 1990) study saturated clay heating under undrained
conditions, and present a yield surface change in the p0 eqe T plot
and find an overconsolidation ratio playing an important role in the
failure behaviour. Oldakowski (Oldakowski et al., 2016) conduct
study on geomechanical properties of Clearwater shale at elevated
temperatures, and find that shale samples became much stiffer
(higher Young’s modulus) and stronger (higher cohesion, lower
friction angle) at elevated temperature. Wong (1998) shows that
swelling caused by water imbibition is an alternative that weakens
shale and improves effective permeability.
To determine the proper approach to break IBS in our reservoir,
a systematically geomechanical study is initiated. It focuses mainly
on three methods. To discover the potential of imbibition and the
general characteristic of IBS, mineral composition, porosity, and
permeability are studied. Then, imbibition test with or without
confining pressure are carried out. Shear failure is another gener-
ally used method and is investigated by conducting triaxial
compression tests. Both geomechanical properties and failure en-
velopes are obtained. Last, thermal properties and IBS failure by
thermal loading are tested. The intent is to increase deviatoric
stress through a combination of undrained heating and constrained
strain in one direction and constrained stress in another direction.
2. Experimental methodology
2.1. Coring and specimen preparation
The cores were obtained from two wells in the center of a SAGD-
able reservoir in the Fengcheng formation in Urho area of Junggar
Basin. It is Jurassic Badaowan Formation and epicontinental
offshore lake in deep-water, with blocked anoxic and high salinity.
To avoid contaminating the cores, viscous mineral oil was used to
saturate the liner within the core barrel initially. As cores were
retrieved at the surface, liner containing cores was cut into seg-
ments. Each segment was then sealed with plastic membrane and
stored in refrigerator immediately. Segments containing IBS were
selected on site and transferred to the laboratory after the core
sampling process was complete. For most studies, 1-in. core plugs
were drilled. Even though technology like liquid nitrogen was
attempted, most sampling efforts failed because the cores were
extremely fragile. These core plugs were then pictured, measured
and polished for the following experiments.
2.2. Mineral composition analysis
Samples taken from various depths were ground into powder,
dried, and smeared onto a thin piece of glass. Then, an X-ray
diffraction (using an XRD, 2020, TTR-III) analysis was performed
based on these samples.
2.3. Porosity measurement
Two mudstone shales were weighted initially and immersed
into a beaker with a determined volume of mineral oil. The volume
increment was noted as the volume of the specimen. Following
that, the specimen was ground down and put in the oven overnight
at 150
C. The weight difference between the specimen and its
residue was used to calculate the weight of its pore water. Using the
specimen’s weight of pore water and volume, the porosity was
determined.
2.4. Permeability measurement
All permeability tests were conducted with the desired axial and
radial stress to report permeability under certain stress condition.
After putting the specimen in the triaxial core holder, the desired
confining pressure and axial pressure was applied by using a pump
(a ISCO 100DX, 2019). Then, helium was introduced until the
desired pressure was obtained. An outlet valve connected to the
downstream buffer was opened a small amount to produce a small
pressure difference between the two faces of the specimen. The
transducer connected to two ends of the core holder recorded the
pressure difference with time. Collected data was processed using
the pulse decay method (BODI and Storage, 2012).
2.5. Water imbibition test
In the first experiment, the specimen was put into a beaker and
had direct contact with deionized water in the atmosphere. In the
second experiment, the specimen was mounted in a triaxial core
holder. It was subjected to a confining pressure of 6.3 MPa (applied
by a Quizix pump) and axial stress of 9.5 MPa, corresponding to in-
situ stress conditions. Pore pressure was initially increased to
4.4 MPa by injecting brine with a 100DX ISCO pump and controlled
by a backpressure regulator. Then, the injection pressure was kept
for a period at a certain pressure below 5.8 MPa. The pressures of
the inlet and outlet, as well as the volumetric reader of the Quizix
pump, were recorded. After 15 days of testing, the specimen was
taken out of the core holder.
2.6. Geomechanical strength test
A GCTS product, RTR-1500, was used to conduct geomechanical
strength tests. Core plugs were prepared with a length to diameter
ratio of 2:1. It were polished carefully and sealed in heat-shrink
tubing. Further tests were carried out under ambient tempera-
tures at drained conditions. Before applying the axial loading, the
core plugs experienced elevated confining pressure with the pur-
pose of closing the microfissure caused by stress release during
coring. Then, confining pressure was kept at the desired value for
the remainder of the experiment. Afterward, axial loading was
exerted to the core plug using an axial strain control strategy until
axial loading approached 30% of the peak strength of the core plug.
 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288 279

Then, axial loading was controlled by a radial strain rate until the
experiment was complete. The axial stress and axial and radial
strain measurements were collected with time by a data-
acquisition system.

2.7. Thermal properties

Thermal properties of IBS were studied using an Anter Corpo-

ration Quickline-30 thermal properties analyzer. Cores with a
diameter of 10 cm with even and polished face were used. A probe
with a range of 0.3e2 W/M$K was chosen and it was pressed to the
surface of cores to obtain a perfect contact. Then, a testing pro-
cedure was run automatically several times.

2.8. Thermal stimulation experiment

The basic theory was to rapidly heat the sample in undrained

conditions. This gave rise to considerable thermal stress if con-
strained strain in one direction (axial) was applied. Meanwhile,
stress in another direction (radial) remained constant. These efforts
increased deviatoric stress. As deviatoric stress built up, it even-
tually caused failure. The setup (Fig. 1 and Fig. 2) for the thermal
stimulation experiment consisted mainly of a heating unit, a CT
facility, as well as a core holder, which was made of carbon fibre
designed to undergo harsh conditions such as high temperature
and pressure but allow for penetration of X-rays. The specimen was
fully saturated with connate water under 0.5 MPa for 15 days in a
coreholder and then sealed in a sleeve made of Teflon and mounted
to the endcap of the core holder. Both ends of the sample were
pressed slightly against endcap of the coreholder. The endcap,
which had drainage opening, was connected to pressure gauge by
slim tubing. The slim tubing was saturated with mineral oil initially.
Then, mineral oil was introduced into the chamber of the core
holder. Confining pressure was established at the end of charging
the oil and kept constant using a backpressure regulator. Mean-
while, the Endcap of the core holder was fixed to constrain the axial
Fig. 2. The setup for the thermal stimulation experiment.
deformation of the specimen. This was to ensure that a “uniaxial
boundary condition” was achieved, which would be expressed by
△εa ¼ △sr ¼ 0 in our axisymmetric model. Inlet and outlet valves
connected to the specimen were constantly closed to prevent
draining. Two heating bands were used to heat up the specimen. In
the following experiment, the heating rate was set to 40
C/h. The
pore pressure generally rose with elevated temperature. When the
temperature reached 180
C, the pore pressure was about 4.5 MPa,
which was over the corresponding saturation pressure of 1 MPa. As
this experiment was conducted under undrained condition, there
was no chance for the flashing to occur during the experiment. The
entire core holder was fixed to the scanning bed of the CT facility.
CT scanning took place from one side of the core holder to the other
at desired time intervals. One scanning period lasted for 30 s for a

Fig. 1. Flow chart of the thermal stimulation experiment.

280 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288

Table 1 mudstone IBS and the dominant species was quartz. The results
Mineral composition of IBS specimens. also revealed more than 50% clay mineral content existed in these
SpecimenID Lithology Mineral species and content (%) samples. It was also observed that the relative clay mineral content
quartz K-feldspar Na-spar calcite dolomite
of smectite of mudstone was high in general and the average value
was 39.4%. This implied IBS has a strong potential for imbibition.
X1 Mudstone 29.1 4.9 14 e e
X2 Mudstone 34.3 1.1 e e e
X3 Mudstone 38.9 e 7.4 e e 3.2.2. General properties of IBS
X4 Mudstone 45.7 0.7 1.8 e e Measurement results of porosity for IBS are listed in Table 3,
X5 Sandy shale 25.3 9.5 15.9 4.2 e respectively. The porosity of mudstone IBS was close to 7%. The
X6 Sandy shale 26.1 4.2 21.1 e e
permeability was measured at different stress conditions (Table 4).
X7 argillaceous 38.1 1.4 6.6 12.1 e
siltstone The main conclusion was that the permeability of the IBS studied
X8 calcareous 11.5 e 4.4 76.9 e was extremely low and at the level of 100 nD. It declined with
sandstone increased confining pressure. These laboratory studies demon-
strated that IBS had extremely low porosity and permeability
compared with its surrounding matrix. Fluid injected under
60 mm length specimen. It was cooled for 1 min before the next elevated pressures would detour because of this fact.
scanning began. Tremendous images were generated by CT scan-
ning during the experiment. User-tailoring software was adapted to 3.2.3. Imbibition test results
process CT images and microstructures could be determined with Because significant smectite ingredients presented in mudstone
these data. IBS, it was determined to expose IBS to water in order to reduce its
mechanical strength or even break it. To confirm this idea, two sets
of experiments were performed. In the first experiment, IBS was
3. Results and discussion
allowed to be in direct contact with water, as Fig. 3 indicates.
Disintegration with time along the bedding plane was observed. In
3.1. IBS from coring
the other experiment, the specimen was exerted confining pressure
in a triaxial core holder. Brine was injected under constant pressure
Five types of IBS were identified from coring in terms of litho-
(the highest pressure applied was 5.8 MPa) for a period and the
logic character: mudstone, sandy shale, muddy sandstone, calcar-
swelling of the IBS was detected by the volumetric reader of the
eous sandstone, and glutenite. Calcareous sandstone formed a
Quizix pump, which ran in constant pressure mode. However, no
shape similar to a potato in the formation and distributed
measureable change was recorded in 15 days. No disintegration was
discretely. The probability of collecting this type of shale during
observed at the end of testing after disassembling the triaxial cor-
coring was less than 30%, according to interior drilling records.
eholder. This experiment revealed that disintegration would not
Therefore, it was concluded that calcareous sandstone posed little
take place with effective stress larger than 0.5 MPa. To promote
challenge to SAGD operations considering size and distribution
imbibition, effective unloading of IBS was crucial. Future work may
characterization. Similarly, glutenite was normally found at the
consider improving injection pressure as an option, while it suf-
bottom of the formation. Therefore, it was assumed it would not
fered from maximum operating pressure (MOP) limitations. Also,
harm a SAGD operation as long as a horizontal well was drilled
high-pressure SAGD operation was generally uneconomic.
above it. In contrast, mudstone IBS (and a fraction of sandy shale
and muddy sandstone) was most commonly collected by coring.
3.3. Failure by geomechanical effects
The thickness of these types of IBS varied from 1 to 200 cm. These
types of shale tend to laterally and continuously extend over 100 m.
The potential of shear failure was investigated in this portion of
It was because of this that mudstone IBS had the largest impact on
the study. First, an in-situ stress state of the coring well was ob-
an SAGD process and determined the focus of this study. The cores
tained by way of minifrac testing. Then, shear strength and other
shipped to the laboratory were collected from two coring wells
geomechanical properties were obtained by triaxial compression
with a buried depth in the range of 300e500 m. Most of these cores
tests. Lastly, the post-failure behaviour was studied by way of
were mudstone, sandy shale, and muddy sandstone. They were
friction coefficient.
taken partially from the bottom of a caprock and partially from the
middle of a pay zone.
3.3.1. In-situ stress condition
Minifrac testing indicated the closure pressure was approxi-
3.2. Imbibition-induced disintegration mately 6.3 MPa at 440-m depth. The minimum principle stress at
this depth should be along the horizontal direction (Carlson, 2003;
Mudstone IBS was observed to be prone to swelling when Collins, 2005; Yuan et al., 2011b). Therefore, the closure pressure
contact is made with water. Whether or not the same thing was set as ϭh. Next, the density profile of the coring well was in-
happened in a formation was still unknown. So general properties tegrated and the vertical stress ϭv was determined as 9.2 MPa. The
like mineral composition, porosity, and permeability of IBS was maximal principle stress ϭH was evaluated to be 1.5 times ϭh. Initial
measured. Then imbibition tests with and without confining pore pressure was taken at 4.4 MPa, which is reasonable for this
pressure was performed to evaluate the potential of imbibition- formation. The stress state is listed in Table 5 and the stress con-
induced disintegration of IBS. dition in all experimental schemes was in line with this.

3.2.1. Mineral composition 3.3.2. Triaxial compression test

Some mineral content (e.g., smectite) has a close relationship
with imbibition issues that generally accompany swelling and
softening phenomena (Wong, 1998). In total, eight specimens of IBS
were screened for mineral composition analysis and the results are
listed in Table 1 and Table 2. Mineral content was generally low for
A total of 20 samples were tested on a triaxial compression
testing apparatus. Most efforts were successful in providing
strength information upon IBS (Table 6). The microfissure devel-
oped during coring affected the strength of samples greatly
(WONG, 2004). Three sets of reconsolidation tests were conducted
 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288 281

Table 2
Clay mineral composition of IBS specimens.

SpecimenID Lithologic character Clay mineralcontent (%) Relative clay mineral content (%)

smectite illite kaolinite chlorite

X1 Mudstone 52 36 9 32 23
X2 Mudstone 63.6 23 33 e 44
X3 Mudstone 53.7 45 21 10 24
X4 Mudstone 51.8 43 18 39 e
X5 Sandy shale 45.1 50 26 8 16
X6 Sandy shale 48.6 64 5 20 11
X7 argillaceous siltstone 41.8 18 31 10 41
X8 Calcareous sandstone 7.2 20 30 8 42

Table 3 was then used to calculate bulk modulus K of the specimen and it
Porosity measurement results of mudstone IBS. was estimated to be 3.08, 4.93, and 5.08 GPa during three loading
ID Diameter (mm) Length (mm) Volume (mL) Weight (g) Porosity (%) cycles. Obviously, this sort of sample should be classified as
P1 25.04 28.55 14.03 28.98 6.91
incompetent rock. Most importantly, this work indicated that
P2 25.03 25.07 12.51 26.22 7.19 reconsolidation would be achieved by cyclical loading and

Table 4
The permeability of IBS measured by the pulse decay method.

Sample ID Pore pressure Confining pressure Axial pressure Temperature Permeability (mD)

(MPa) (MPa) (MPa) (
C)

K1 1 2.1 1.3 26.96 2.00Ee04

K1 0.94 7.3 6.4 27.25 1.61Ee04
K1 0.89 12.4 11 26.6 1.58Ee04

before the triaxial compression test to learn if this effort would

actually eliminate the impact of coring. Fig. 4 shows the test result
of one specimen (A4). Creep deformation was apparent at each cell Table 5
pressure. After three operation cycles, the curve of strain with cell In-situ stress conditions.
pressure was plotted. From the plot it is observed that the specimen Depth (m) ϭv (MPa) ϭh (MPa) ϭH (MPa) Pp (MPa)
exhibited plastic behaviour initially. After operational cycles, the
440 9.2 6.3 9.5 4.4
specimen’s axial and radial strain decreased and gradually emitted
behaviour similar to that of elastic material. The slope of the curve
was found to descend and tended to converge with cycle. This slope

Fig. 3. Water imbibition experiment without confining pressure (left: IBS before experiment, right: after contacting water for 10 h).
282 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288

Table 6
Triaxial compression test results.

Specimen ID Confining pressure (MPa) Pore pressure (MPa) Peak strength (MPa) Residual strength (MPa) Young’s modulus (GPa) Poisson’s ratio

A1 8 3.6 24 e 2.58 0.27

A2 2 1 13.18 12.2 2.21 0.35
A3 8 e e e e e
A4 5 0 14.27 8.44 2.34 0.21
A5 8 0 18.72 14.59 1.24 0.22
A6 0 0 2.49 1.25 e e
A7 12 0 21.75 13 2.18 0.44
A8 0 0 4.44 2.73 1.84 0.22
A9 12 0 22.33 18.38 1.68 0.48
A10 2 0 12.63 4.73 1.17 0.36
A11 0 0 1.79 0 e e
A12 0 0 4.53 0.82 1.11 0.23
A13 5 0 16.07 8.47 1.57 0.351
A14 2 0 15.19 7.24 2.11 0.26
A15 8 0 16.75 13.41 1.59 0.22
A16 8 0 28.34 18.49 2.34 0.21
A17 8 0 40.78 27.87 4.66 0.08
A18 8 0 27.43 16.67 1.56 0.18
A19 8 0 23.76 15.97 2.11 0.23
A20 8 0 41.1 23.56 1.90 0.09

Fig. 4. Reconsolidation of IBS by gradually increasing and decreasing cell pressure.

unloading cell pressure. Fig. 5. A typical full stress/strain curve of IBS (the specimen was A9 and subjected to
Pc ¼ 12 MPa; note that volumetric dilation was represented by negative).

3.3.3. Full stress/strain curve

A9, a typical mudstone specimen, exhibited excellent plasticity stress/strain curve. In the calculation, the middle point of the elastic
under high-confining pressure (Pc ¼ 12 MPa). Its strain at the end of segment of these curves was selected:
the test exceeded 6% without losing its residual strength. From
Fig. 5, we can observe that this specimen experienced slight shear E ¼ ðs1  s3 Þð50%Þ =εað50%Þ (1)
dilation initially and strong shear contraction for the remainder of
the test. A14 was a sandy shale specimen. It generally showed  
higher resistance to shear failure compared with A9. A typical shear
dilation pattern was followed during a triaxial compression test
under low confining pressure (Pc ¼ 2 MPa, see Fig. 6). In contrast,
A15, also a sandy shale specimen, exhibited shear contraction from
the beginning to the end of the test. The test was conducted under
high-confining pressure (Pc ¼ 8 MPa, see Fig. 7). By properly pro-
cessing full stress/strain curves from successful triaxial compres-
sion tests, the Young’s modulus, Poisson’s ratio, and Mohr-Coulomb
failure envelope were obtained.
3.3.4. Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio
Young’s modulus and Poisson’s ratio can be calculated from the
y ¼ εrð50%Þ= εað50%Þ  (2)
where s1 is the axial stress (MPa); s3 is the confining pressure
(MPa); εa is the axial strain; εr is the radial strain; E is the Young’s
modulus; and n is the Poisson’s ratio.
The Young’s modulus was calculated and plotted against cell
pressure, as defined in Fig. 8. In general, it increased with cell
pressure as expected. The relationship between Young’s modulus
and cell pressure could be regressed with a linear fitting, as shown
in Fig. 8. The only exception was when the specimen was drilled
parallel to the bedding plane. The Young’s modulus for these
specimens did not increase with cell pressure when it exceeded
 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288 283

Fig. 6. A typical full stress/strain curve of IBS (the specimen was A14 and subjected to
Pc ¼ 2 MPa). Fig. 8. Young’s modulus of IBS specimen.

Fig. 9. Regression of cohesion and friction angle in a s1 e s3 plot.

Fig. 7. A typical full stress/strain curve of IBS (the specimen was A15 and subjected to
Pc ¼ 8 MPa). derived from the fitting to describe the peak and residual strength
of IBS as follows:

5 MPa. What is more, the magnitude of Young’s modulus was found s1 ¼ 1:924 þ 2:757  s3 ðPEAKÞ (3)
to depend strongly on the drilling direction. It was estimated to be
in the range of 1.75e2.5 GPa for the specimen drilled in the bedding
s1 ¼ 0:304 þ 1:84  s3 ðRESIDUALÞ (4)
plane and 1.1e1.7 GPa for the specimen drilled perpendicular to the
bedding plane. This fact demonstrated that the Young’s modulus in By applying the geomechanical relation, the friction angle (4)
the horizontal direction was higher than that in vertical direction and cohesion (C) were derived by the following expressions:
and indicated the heterogeneous condition in the formation.    
Poisson’s ratio for these samples varied from 0.21 to 0.48 K1 2:757  1
4 ¼ sin1 ¼ sin1 ¼ 27:9o (5)
(Table 6) and showed strong specimen dependency. It was quite Kþ1 2:757 þ 1
obvious that the specimen contained more clay components and
exhibited a greater Poisson’s ratio. Both Young’s modulus and sc ð1  sin 4Þ 1:924  ð1  0:467Þ
Poisson’s ratio displayed strong anisotropy of IBS. C¼ ¼ ¼ 0:58ðMPaÞ (6)
2 cos 4 2  0:883
Then, the Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope t e sn0 was drawn in
3.3.5. Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope red in the plot of Fig. 10. The in-situ stress condition was repre-
The peak and residual strength with confining pressure are sented by Mohr circle in green. As observed, moving this green
listed in Table 6. To obtain the failure envelope of IBS, the relation of circle left resulted in touching the failure envelope. It inferred that
strength and confining pressure was evaluated by a linear regres- elevated pore pressure reduced effective stress and led to shear
sion in s1 e s3 plot, as shown in Fig. 9. Two expressions can be failure. However, fluid injection alone was less likely to lower
284 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288
Fig. 10. Mohr-Coulomb failure envelope and Mohr circles.
effective stress because the surrounding sandstone had much
higher permeability compared with IBS. As mentioned in the
Imbibition test results section, injection pressure should be always
below MOP, which was generally smaller than the minimal prin-
ciple stress. Another possibility for shear failure could be achieved
by increasing deviatoric stress, which essentially increases the
diameter of the Mohr circle and leads to contact with the failure
envelope. Anisotropic effects, like the Young’s modulus, perme-
ability, cohesion, and thermal expansion coefficient of IBS,
contributed to deviatoric stress, and thus, to shear failure.
3.3.6. Friction coefficient
IBS failure alone may not allow for steam breakthrough under
compression conditions. The permeability was still quite limited at
the moment of failure. However, significant permeability
improvement was achieved by further slippage along the failure
plane. Therefore, it is important to consider post-failure behaviour.
The friction coefficient was an important parameter related to this
issue. A high-friction coefficient usually means it is hard to slip over
the failure plane. One of the methods to estimate the friction co-
efficient is to follow Eqs. (7)e(9), and residual strength from triaxial
compression tests and failure angles were involved.
1 1
s ¼ ðs1 þ s3 Þ þ ðs1  s3 Þcos 2 b (7)
2 2
1 were obtained at room temperature. The thermal conductivity
t ¼  ðs1  s3 Þsin 2 b (8)
2
t 1.03 KJ/(Kg$K) and 8.90Ee07 m2/s, respectively.
m¼ (9)
s  pp
where s1 is the residual strength, s3 is the confining pressure, b is
the failure angle, and m is the friction coefficient. The residual
strength was measured by carefully controlling the radial strain
rate after peak strength is reached. The failure angle was obtained
by measuring the angle between the failure plane and end face of
the specimen after disassembling the triaxial cell. Theoretically, the
following relation should be applied to the failure and friction
angles:
p 4
b¼ þ (10)
4 2
Because the friction angle 4 was determined to be 27.9
in the
previous section, the ideal failure angle was calculated to be 58.95
.
Test results revealed that failure angles were generally lower than
the value predicted by the theory and in the range of 51.21e58.35
.
Correspondingly, the friction coefficient m was computed by Eq. (9)
and listed in Table 7. For most mudstone IBS, this value was
approximately 0.26. It was a relatively high value for sandy shale
(A16) and muddy sandstone (A17). This work indicated that
mudstone IBS was more likely to slip after failure in comparison to
other types of IBS.
3.4. Thermal-induced failure
Thermal expansion in undrained conditions would largely in-
crease deviatoric stress if constrained strain and stress boundary
conditions are applied. This theory is studied through thermal
property measurements and stimulation experiments.
3.4.1. Thermal properties
Thermal properties of rock in the reservoir are important for the
thermal process. The thermal properties of IBS listed in Table 8
measurement varied in the range of 1.66e2.01. The measured
specific heat and thermal diffusion coefficient was approximately
3.4.2. Thermal stimulation experiment
Thermal stimulation experiments were designed to study fail-
ure behaviour of IBS during thermal stimulation. In this experi-
ment, confining pressure and axial strain were fixed to fulfill tan
“uniaxial boundary condition” (Fig. 11). The normal uniaxial
boundary condition generally means the vertical stress maintained
constant while horizontal strain was seriously constrained by the
surrounding rock in the field. Specifically, that is
 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288 285

Table 7
Friction coefficient calculation.

Specimen ID Residual strength (MPa) Confining pressure (MPa) Failure angle b (
) Pore pressure (MPa) Shear stress t (MPa) Normal stress s (MPa) Friction coefficient m

A4 14.27 8.44 56.17 0 2.70 10.25 0.26

A5 14.1 8 58.35 0 2.73 9.68 0.28
A9 18.7 12 51.21 0 3.27 14.63 0.22
A10 4.2 2.2 55.34 0 0.94 2.85 0.33
A13 8.47 5 52.81 0 1.67 6.27 0.27
A16 18.49 8 53.4 0 5.02 11.73 0.43
A17 22 8 52.77 0 6.75 13.13 0.51

Table 8
Thermal properties of IBS.

Specimen ID Thermal conductivity l Specific Heat Cp Thermal diffusion coefficient a

W/(m$K) KJ/(Kg$K) m2/s

T1 1.92 1.03 8.90Ee07

T2 2.01 0.95 1.01Ee06
T3 1.66 1.05 7.50Ee07
T4 1.87 0.96 9.30Ee07

Fig. 11. Boundary conditions (left: uniaxial boundary condition; right: axial strain boundary condition in the thermal stimulation experiment).

△εH ¼ △εh ¼ △sv ¼ 0, while the boundary condition used in our
axisymmetric model would be expressed by △εa ¼ △sr ¼ 0.
A microfissure was found in several slices during CT scanning
when temperatures were over 140
C. These fissures became darker
and clearer as temperatures rose. Classic shear band would be
vividly observed as these fissures connected. The inner structure of
the specimen at T ¼ 180
C is shown in Fig. 12, which indicated
fractures crossing the lower part of the core plug formed. After
disassembling the setup, the shear fracture in the lower part of the
specimen was observed (Fig. 13).
3.4.3. IBS failure discussion
Both imbibition and shear failure studies indicated that it was
critical to increase pore pressure to reduce effective stress. How-
ever, injection pressure close to the minimal principal stress for an
extended period of time and for a significant cumulative injection
volume was dangerous and uneconomical. In contrast, those
anisotropic effects contributed to deviatoric stress and thus failure.
In fact, rapid heating under constrained strain conditions led to
considerable deviatoric stress. CT images indicated that both a
shear band and shear fracture formed in the mudstone specimen,
proving shear failure of the specimen took place during the thermal
stimulation experiment. It was expected that shear failure of IBS
took place because of the following factors. First, the specimen had
extremely low porosity and permeability and experienced rapid
heating (40
C/h), which meant undrained conditions were appli-
cable in this case. Second, thermal expansion of IBS under un-
drained conditions was much more significant compared with
those under drained conditions. Third, deviatoric stress was
enhanced by thermal loading when the constrained strain bound-
ary condition was applied. Finally, failure envelope shrinkage
(Hueckel and Baldi, 1990; Hueckel and Borsetto, 1990), which was
caused by thermal softening and effective stress decrease, impacts
shear failure.
In the case of this thermal stimulation experiment, the thermal
stress caused by constrained heating was calculated as:
286 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288

Fig. 12. Microfracture formed inside the specimen in the thermal stimulation experiment (CT scanned from left to right in 2.5 mm intervals. This CT image was obtained by a User-
tailoring software in an effort to identify microstructures. The color code is CT number expressed in hounsfield units. It was the function of attenuation coefficient for the X-ray
beam and mainly connected to the density of material.).

Fig. 13. Specimen after the thermal stimulation experiment (shear-induced failure can be observed in the image on the left. The right image was the same specimen taken from
another view. Tensile fissures at the bottom of the specimen accidently developed by contacting mineral oil during disassembly).
 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288 287

sT ¼ E,aL ,DT
This thermal stress is along the axial direction and represented
the increment of deviatoric stress between axial stress and radial
stress. The stress condition corresponding to this experiment is
represented by the blue circle in Fig. 10. Shear failure is achieved
when this circle touched the failure envelope, according to Mohr-
Coulomb failure criteria. What is more, the following relation
stands if the uniaxial boundary condition is applied:
DεH ¼ Dεh ¼ 0
(4) The friction coefficient for most mudstone IBS was approxi-
(11) mately 0.26. It was relatively high for sandy shale and muddy
sandstone. The test results indicated that mudstone IBS was
more likely to slip after failure compared with other types of
IBS and had a greater chance of reducing resistance to fluid
flow.
(5) Shear failure behaviour of IBS was observed by CT scanning
as IBS was heated to 180
C under constant radial confining
pressure and axial strain. Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion
was used to analyze failure of IBS in the thermal stimulation
(12) experiments.

Acknowledgements
DsV ¼ 0 (13)
Using general Hooke’s law, we obtained The authors would like to thank PetroChina Research Institute of
Petroleum Exploration and Development (RIPED) and PetroChina
E,aL ,DT Ltd. for allowing the publication of this paper. Technical support
DsH ¼ (14)
1y from geomechanical group and CT group was appreciated, espe-
cially Jiandong Liu, Guangming Zhang, and Weifeng Lv. This work
In the case of steam injection, the thermal stress predicted by a
was supported by the National Science and Technology Major
poro-thermo-elastic model (Hassanzadegan, 2013; Walters et al.,
Project of China (No. 2016ZX05012).
2012) was:

E,aL ,DT ð1  2yÞ,DP Nomenclature

DsH ¼ þ (15)
1y 1y
C ¼ cohesion, MPa
The increment of deviatoric stress (the Mohr circle displayed in Cp ¼ specific heat, KJ/(Kg$K)
yellow in Fig. 10) would be even larger than that in a thermal E ¼ Young’s modulus, MPa
stimulation experiment. Even though shear failure would take K ¼ bulk modulus, GPa
place under undrained heating with constrained strain boundary Pc ¼ confining pressure, MPa
conditions, the field is not simple. Some important issues (e.g., Pp ¼ pore pressure, MPa
proper boundary conditions for the field and failure envelope under n ¼ Poisson’s ratio
high temperature) should be further addressed in order to study a ¼ thermal diffusion coefficient, m2/s
the failure condition in the field. aL ¼ linear thermal expansion coefficient/K
b ¼ failure angle,

△T ¼ change of temperature,
C
4. Conclusions △εh ¼ change of strain in the minimal horizontal principle
stress direction
(1) Mineral composition analysis demonstrated considerable △εH ¼ change of strain in the maximal horizontal principle
smectite and chlorite present in IBS, which potentially stress direction
resulted in swelling. Even though disintegration was △sv ¼ change of vertical principle stress, MPa
observed in the experiment without confining pressure, no ε ¼ strain
disintegration occurred because effective stress was greater εa ¼ axial strain
than 0.5 MPa. This comparison inferred water injection could εr ¼ radial strain
not weaken the IBS by swelling effectively. l ¼ thermal conductivity, W/(m$K)
(2) Mudstone, sandy mudstone, and muddy sandstone IBS were m ¼ friction coefficient
considered to be the main threat to an SAGD process. IBS s ¼ normal stress, MPa
tested in the laboratory was with extremely low porosity and sv ¼ vertical principle stress, MPa
permeability. The porosity was approximately 7% and sT ¼ thermal stress, MPa
permeability of IBS was found to vary with stress conditions. s1 ¼ axial stress, MPa
When in-situ stress was applied, permeability was approxi- s3 ¼ confining pressure, MPa
mately 100 nD, which were 7 orders of magnitude lower t ¼ shear stress, MPa
than that of the main pay. The injected fluid under high 4 ¼ friction angle,

pressure tended to detour IBS and could not increase pore
pressure of IBS effectively. References
(3) The Young’s modulus of IBS fell into the range of 1.1e2.5 GPa,
which was considerably low compared with normal sand- Agar, J.G., Morgenstern, N.R., Scott, J.D., 1983. GEOTECHNICAL TESTING of ALBERTA
OIL SANDS at ELEVATED TEIqPERATURES and PRESSURE, 24th US Symposium
stone. It varied with drilling direction and confining pres- on Rock Mechanics. American Rock Mechanics Association, College Station,
sure. Poisson’s ratio for these samples varied from 0.21 to Texas.
0.48 because of mineral composition difference. The geo- di, A.G.T., Storage, E.F., 2012. Measurement OF porosity and gas permeability OF
Bo
tight rocks BY the pulse decay method. Geosciences and Engineering 1 (1),
mechanical parameters variation indicated strong anisotropy
65e74.
of the IBS, which could enhance deviatoric stress. Mudstone Bois, A.-P., CurisTec, Mainguy, M., 2011. Importance of thermal consolidation of
specimens also exhibited rather weak strength but excellent shale during SAGD process. In: SPE Heavy Oil Conference and Exhibition. So-
plasticity. To form practicable flow channels inside of IBS, it is ciety of Petroleum Engineers, Kuwait City, Kuwait. https://doi.org/10.2118/
150420-MS.
necessary to promote further slippage along failure plane Butler, R.M., 1986. The expansion OF tar sands during thermal recovery. J. Can.
following failure. Petrol. Technol. 5 (5), 51e56. https://doi.org/10.2118/86-05-05.
288 S. Zhang et al. / Petroleum Research 5 (2020) 277e288
Carlson, M., 2003. SAGD and geomechanics. J. Can. Petrol. Technol. 42 (6), 8e14.
https://doi.org/10.2118/03-06-DAS.
Carlson, M.R., 2012. An analysis of the caprock failure at joslyn. In: SPE Heavy Oil
Conference Canada. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
https://doi.org/10.2118/156962-MS.
Collins, P.M., 2005. Geomechanical effects on the SAGD process. In: SPE Interna-
tional Thermal Operations and Heavy Oil Symposium. Society of Petroleum
Engineers, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. https://doi.org/10.2118/97905-MS.
Collins, P.M., Walters, D.A., Perkins, T., Kuhach, J.D., Veith, E., 2011. Effective caprock
determination for SAGD projects. In: Canadian Unconventional Resources
Conference. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. https://
doi.org/10.2118/149226-MS.
Du, J., Wong, R.C.K., 2010. Numerical modelling of geomechanical response of
sandy-shale formation in oil sands reservoir during steam injection. J. Can.
Petrol. Technol. 49 (1), 23e28. https://doi.org/10.2118/132638-PA.
Dusseault, M.B., Collins, P.M., 2008. Geomechanics effects in thermal processes for
heavy oil exploitation. CSEG RECORDER 339, 20e23. https://doi.org/10.1190/
1.9781560802235.ch24.
Ercb, 2010. Total E&P Canada Ltd. Surface Steam Release of May 18, 2006 Joslyn
Creek SAGD Thermal Operation. ENERGY RESOURCES CONSERVATION BOARD.
Hassanzadegan, A., 2013. Thermomechanical and Poromechanical Behavior of
Flechtinger Sandstone. PhD Thesis, der Technischen Universityat Berlin, Berlin,
p. 109.
Hueckel, T., Baldi, G., 1990. Thermoplasticity of saturated clays: experimental
constitutive study. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 116 (2), 1778e1796.
https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9410 (1990)116:12(1778).
Hueckel, T., Borsetto, M., 1990. Thermoplasticity of saturated soils and shales:
constitutive equations. Journal of Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE 116 (12),
1765e1777.
Ipek, G., Frauenfeld, T., Yuan, J.Y., 2008. Numerical study of shale issues in SAGD. In:
Canadian International Petroleum Conference. Petroleum Society of Canada,
Calgary, Alberta, Canada. https://doi.org/10.2118/2008-150.
Isco 100Dx, 2019. Telemyne.
Ito, Y., Hirata, T., Ichikawa, M., 2004. The effect of operating pressure on the growth
of the steam chamber detected at the hangingstone SAGD project. J. Can. Petrol.
Technol. 43 (1), 47e53. https://doi.org/10.2118/04-01-05.
Li, B., Wong, R., 2013. Effect of thermally induced deformation of shale on wellbore
and caprock integrity. In: SPE Heavy Oil Conference-Canada. Society of Petro-
leum Engineers, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. https://doi.org/10.2118/165393-MS.
Oldakowski, K., Sawatzky, R.P., Alvarez, J.M., 2016. Geomechanical properties of
clearwater shale at elevated temperatures. In: SPE Canada Heavy Oil Technical
Conference. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. https://
doi.org/10.2118/180694-MS.
Walters, D., Wang, J., Settari, A., 2012. A geomechanical methodology for deter-
mining maximum operating pressure in SAGD reservoirs. In: SPE Heavy Oil
Conference Canada. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
https://doi.org/10.2118/157855-MS.
Wong, R.C.K., 1998. Swelling and softening behaviour of La Biche shale. Can. Geo-
tech. J. 35 (2), 206e221.
Wong, R.C.K., 2004. Effect of sample disturbance induced by gas exsolution on
geotechnical and hydraulic properties measurements in oil sands. In: Petroleum
Society’s 5th Canadian International Petroleum Conference. Canada, Calgary,
Alberta.
Xrd III, T.T.R.-, 2020. Shimadzu.
Xu, B., Yuan, Y.G., Wang, Z.C., 2011. Thermal impact on shale deformation/failure
behaviors — laboratory studies. In: 45th U.S. Rock Mechanics/Geomechanics
Symposium. American Rock Mechanics Association, San Francisco, CA.
Yang, G., Butler, R.M., 1992. Effects of reservoir heterogeneities on heavy oil recovery
by steam-assisted gravity drainage. J. Can. Petrol. Technol. 31 (8), 37e43.
https://doi.org/10.2118/92-08-03.
Yang, B., Xu, B., Yuan, Y., 2013. Impact of thermal pore pressure on the caprock
integrity during the SAGD operation. In: SPE Heavy Oil Conference-Canada.
https://doi.org/10.2118/165448-MS. Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Yuan, Y., Xu, B., Palmgren, C., 2011. Design of caprock integrity in thermal stimu-
lation of shallow oil-sands reservoirs. In: Canadian Unconventional Resources
Conference. https://doi.org/10.2118/149371-MS. Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
Yuan, Y., Xu, B., Palmgren, C., 2011a. design of caprock integrity in thermal stimu-
lation of shallow oil-sands reservoirs. In: Canadian Unconventional Resources
Conference. Society of Petroleum Engineers Calgary, Alberta, Canada. https://
doi.org/10.2118/149371-MS.
Yuan, Y., Xu, B., Yang, B., 2011b. Geomechanics for the thermal stimulation of heavy
oil reservoirseCanadian experience. In: SPE Heavy Oil Conference and Exhibi-
tion. Society of Petroleum Engineers, Kuwait City, Kuwait. https://doi.org/
10.2118/150293-MS.