Derek Elsworth

Stress- and Chemistry-Mediated Permeability Enhancement/Degradation in Stimulated Critically-Stressed Fractures

This work has investigated the interactions between stress and chemistry in controlling the evolution of permeability in stimulated fractured reservoirs through an integrated program of experimentation and modeling. Flow-through experiments on natural and artificial fractures in Coso diorite have examined the evolution of permeability under paths of mean and deviatoric stresses, including the role of dissolution and precipitation. Models accommodating these behaviors have examined the importance of incorporating the complex couplings between stress and chemistry in examining the evolution of permeability in EGS reservoirs. This document reports the findings of experiment [1,2] and analysis [3,4], in four sequential chapters.

Critical Chemical-Mechanical Couplings that Define Permeability Modifications in Pressure-Sensitive Rock Fractures

This work examined and quantified processes controlling changes in the transport characteristics of natural fractures, subjected to coupled thermal-mechanical-chemical (TMC) effects. Specifically, it examined the effects of mineral dissolution and precipitation mediated by mechanical effects, using laboratory through-flow experiments concurrently imaged by X-ray CT. These were conducted on natural and artificial fractures in cores using water as the permeant. Fluid and mineral mass balances are recorded and are correlated with in-sample saturation, porosity and fracture aperture maps, acquired in real-time by X-ray CT-imaging at a maximum spatial resolution of 15-50 microns per pixel. Post-test, the samples were resin-impregnated, thin-sectioned, and examined by microscopy to define the characteristics of dissolution and precipitation. The test-concurrent X-ray imaging, mass balances, and measurements of permeability, together with the post-test microscopy, were used to define dissolution/precipitation processes, and to constrain process-based models. These models define and quantify key processes of pressure solution, free-face dissolution, and shear-dilation, and the influence of temperature, stress level, and chemistry on the rate of dissolution, its distribution in space and time, and its influence on the mechanical and transport properties of the fracture.