Petroleum engineering department

Reservoir Geomechanics

Lecture №5 & №6: Rock Strength in compression,

shear and tension
 Learning outcomes

Having worked through this chapter the student will be able to:

 Recognize the most common types of rock mechanics tests

 Apply commonly used rock strength criteria
 Understand effect of pore pressure on rock strength
 Assess Rock strength anisotropy
 Estimate rock strength from geophysical log data

2
 Contents

1 ROCK MECHANICS TESTS

2 ROCK STRENGTH CRITERIA

3 STRENGTH ANISOTROPY

4 ROCK STRENGTH FROM GEOPHYSICAL LOG DATA

5 TENSILE STRENGTH

6 HYDRAULIC FRACTURE LATERAL PROPAGATION AND

VERTICAL GROWTH
Types of Rock Mechanics Tests

4
Figure 4.1 – pg.86
Stress-Strain Curves for Rand Quartzite

Strength Depends on Confining Pressure

5
Mohr Circles in Two Dimensions

Equations 4.1 & 4.2 – pg.89

6
 Mohr Failure in Two Dimensions

Equations 4.3 & 4.4 – pg.89

7
Figure 4.2 a,b,c – pg.88
Practical Guide to Determination of C0 and i

n 1
i 
2 n
Equation 4.5 – pg.89

Figure 4.3 b – pg.90

8
 Strong Rocks/Weak Rocks

Weak rocks have high internal friction

Weak rocks have low cohesion

9
 Contents

1 ROCK MECHANICS TESTS

2 ROCK STRENGTH CRITERIA

3 STRENGTH ANISOTROPY

4 ROCK STRENGTH FROM GEOPHYSICAL LOG DATA

5 TENSILE STRENGTH

6 HYDRAULIC FRACTURE LATERAL PROPAGATION AND

VERTICAL GROWTH
 Strength Criteria in Which the Stress at Failure, 1,
Depends Only on 3

Linearized Mohr-Coulomb criterion (Jaeger and Cook, 1979)

1  q3  C 0 q  ( 2 1  )2 tan  

Equations 4.6 - 4.8 – pg.93

Empirical criterion of Hoek and Brown (1980)

3
1   3  C 0 m
C0
s Equation 4.9 – pg.98

where m and s are constants that depend on the properties of the rock
and on the extent to which it was broken before being subjected to the
failure.
11
 Among Failure Criterion that are
Polyaxial
Functions Strength
of Three Criteria
Principal Stresses

12
Failure Envelopes in Stress Space

Figure 4.6 – pg.94 13

Rock Strength is a Function of Simple Effective Stress

Figure 4.11 a-d – pg.105 14

 Contents

1 ROCK MECHANICS TESTS

2 ROCK STRENGTH CRITERIA

3 STRENGTH ANISOTROPY

4 ROCK STRENGTH FROM GEOPHYSICAL LOG DATA

5 TENSILE STRENGTH

6 HYDRAULIC FRACTURE LATERAL PROPAGATION AND

VERTICAL GROWTH
Strength Anisotropy

16
Highly Foliated Gneiss

17
 Contents

1 ROCK MECHANICS TESTS

2 ROCK STRENGTH CRITERIA

3 STRENGTH ANISOTROPY

4 ROCK STRENGTH FROM GEOPHYSICAL LOG DATA

5 TENSILE STRENGTH

6 HYDRAULIC FRACTURE LATERAL PROPAGATION AND

VERTICAL GROWTH
Figure 4.14 – pg.110 Figure 4.15 – pg.111 Figure 4.16 – pg.112
Sandstone

20
Shale

21
Carbonates

22
Coefficient of Internal Friction

23
 Application to the GOM

Eqn 11 Eqn 12 Eqn 18 Eqn 27

North Sea GOM North Sea GOM

Figure 4.17 – pg.116

24
 Contents

1 ROCK MECHANICS TESTS

2 ROCK STRENGTH CRITERIA

3 STRENGTH ANISOTROPY

4 ROCK STRENGTH FROM GEOPHYSICAL LOG DATA

5 TENSILE STRENGTH

6 HYDRAULIC FRACTURE LATERAL PROPAGATION AND

VERTICAL GROWTH
Rock Strength Measurement

26
 Contents

1 ROCK MECHANICS TESTS

2 ROCK STRENGTH CRITERIA

3 STRENGTH ANISOTROPY

4 ROCK STRENGTH FROM GEOPHYSICAL LOG DATA

5 TENSILE STRENGTH

6 HYDRAULIC FRACTURE LATERAL PROPAGATION AND

VERTICAL GROWTH
Hydraulic Fractures Propagate Perpendicular to the
Least Principal Stress

28
 Propagation of a Mode I Fracture

Pf

Pf

Pf

29
Tensile Strength of Mode I Cracks in Sedimentary
Rocks is Irrelevant for Fracture Propagation*

*Once the fracture begins to propagate

30
 What Controls the Vertical
Growth of Hydraulic Fractures?

31
Case 1 – A Strong Contrast Between the Magnitude of Shmin
Within the Target Formation Prevents Vertical Propagation

3000 6000 psi

32
 What Controls the Vertical
Growth of Hydraulic Fractures?

The Variation of the S3 (Shmin)

With Depth

Measure It!

33
Extended Leak Off Test
(or Mini-Frac)

Figure 7.2 – pg. 211

34
 References

[1] Zoback, M. (2007) Reservoir Geomechanics. New York: Cambridge

University Press

35