Full text loading...
-
Engineering Parameters of Draupne Shale - Fracture Characterization and Integration with Mechanical Data
- Publisher: European Association of Geoscientists & Engineers
- Source: Conference Proceedings, Sixth EAGE Shale Workshop, Apr 2019, Volume 2019, p.1 - 5
Abstract
Fracture characteristics are important as they provide information about the mechanical integrity of its host rock. This study addresses the properties of fractured surfaces of Upper Jurassic organic-rich Shale (Draupne Formation) cored from an exploration well (16/8-3 S) in the Central North Sea. The characterization consists of two steps: i) petrographic studies of the fractured material at micro- and macroscale compared with the mechanical data, and ii) mapping of surfaces with photogrammetric method before and after the samples were sheared in a direct shear test (DST) to determine frictional properties. The preliminary results reveal complex structures, with the natural fractures appearing more diverse than the artificially reactivated surfaces produced from the direct shear test, which may affirm the importance of factors as e.g. temperature, displacement, slip rate and number of reactivations. Moreover, these small-scale fracture planes seem to link up with adjacent fractures to accumulate displacement over a wider area. Little attention has been paid to the details of fractures in shale, despite their importance in the energy industry. Therefore, objective of this study is to provide detailed descriptions of fracture surfaces in shale and the consequences this might induce.