Geo-Mechanics

Introduction to Geo-Mechanics

by
Harinandan Kumar
Introduction
 Introduction
Geomechanics involves the geologic study of the behaviour of soil and rock.
The two main disciplines of geomechanics are soil mechanics and rock mechanics. The
former deals with the behaviour of soil from a small scale to a landslide scale. The latter
deals with issues in geosciences related to rock mass characterization and rock mass
mechanics, such as applied to petroleum industry or high depths, tunnel design, rock
breakage, and rock drilling.
Many aspects of geomechanics overlap with parts of geotechnical engineering, engineering
geology, and geological engineering. Modern developments relate to seismology, continuum
mechanics, discontinuum mechanics, and transport phenomena.
 Introduction
Importance of Stress
The important parameter in the geomechanical model is knowledge of the current state of stress.
Wellbore failure occurs because the stress concentrated around the circumference of a well
exceeds the strength of a rock.

Stress changes in depleting reservoirs

Drilling and hydraulic fracturing are affected by the poroelastic stress changes accompanying
depletion. When there is a need to drill through depleted reservoirs to reach deeper formations, a
variety of drilling problems could occur. Unless relatively low mud weights are used, there could
be unintentional hydraulic fracturing and lost circulation in the depleted reservoir due to the
decrease of the least principal stress in the depleted zone (but not adjacent formations). There can
also be differential pipe sticking due to the difference between the mud weight and pore pressure
in the depleted formations. If much lower mud weights are used to avoid these problems in the
depleted zone, wellbore instability could be a significant problem above and below it.
 Introduction
State of Stress at a Depth
i. Sv, the vertical stress, corresponding to the weight of the overburden

ii. SHmax, the maximum principal horizontal stress

iii. Shmin, the minimum principal horizontal stress and

This obviously helps make stress determination in the crust (as well as description of the in situ
stress tensor) a much more tractable problem.
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 Introduction
Geomechanics is the study of how soils and rocks deform in response to changes of stress,
pressure, temperature, and other parameters.
This science is central to understanding how drill bits remove rock, characterizing borehole
stability, predicting the stability of perforation tunnels, and designing and monitoring
stimulation programs. Geomechanics also helps engineers to model fluid movement and
predict how fluid removal or injection leads to changes in permeability, fluid pressure, and
in situ rock stresses that can have significant effects on reservoir performance.
Engineers use geomechanical modeling to predict and quantify these effects for life-of-
reservoir decisions. The mechanical earth model (MEM) is a collection of the data needed to
make quantitative and qualitative predictions of the subsurface geomechanical environment.
These data include the stresses in the earth, pore pressure, rock elastic properties and
strength data.
 Introduction
In the petroleum engineering industry, geomechanics is used to predict important parameters,
such as in-situ rock stresses, modulus of elasticity, leak-off coefficient and Poisson's ratio.
Reservoir parameters that include: formation porosity, permeability and bottom hole pressure
can be derived from geomechanical evaluation. The geotechnical engineer or geophysicist relies
on various techniques to obtain reliable geomechanical models. These techniques that have
evolved over the years, are: coring, log analysis; well testing methods like hydraulic fracturing,
and geophysical sonar methods such as acoustic emission.
“Petroleum geomechanics is the branch of engineering dealing with the mechanical
properties and behavior of geological formations which influence the exploration,
development, and production of oil and gas. This includes reservoir scale phenomena, such
as faulting and fracture development over geological time, compaction and subsidence
caused by production, and induced faulting and seismicity. It also includes wellbore scale
phenomena, such as wellbore stability during drilling, hydraulic fracturing,
formation/casing interaction during production, sand production, and waste injection”.
 Introduction
Geomechanical Earth Model (GEM)
 Introduction
The key component of a comprehensive geomechanical model is knowledge of the current state
of stress. Wellbore failure occurs because the stress concentrated around the circumference of a
well exceeds the strength of a rock. A fault will slip when the ratio of shear to effective normal
stress resolved on the fault exceeds its frictional strength. determination of the state of stress at
depth in oil and gas fields is a tractable problem that can be addressed with data that are
routinely obtained (or are straightforwardly obtainable) when wells are drilled.

Repeat Formation Tester

(RFT), Drill stem Test
(DST), Pressure while
drilling (PWD), Internal
Testing Tool (ITT),
Leak-off Test (LOT),
Extended leak-off Test
(XLOT)
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Geomechanical Earth Model (GEM)
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 Introduction
Fault
In geology, a fault is a planar fracture or discontinuity in a volume of rock, across which there
has been significant displacement as a result of rock-mass movement.
The faulted rock strata commonly form traps for the accumulation and concentration of fluids
such as petroleum and natural gas. The study of faults in the reservoir area is also important for
the stability of the well. It is long been recognized that joints (fractures) play a major role in the
subsurface fluid flow of water in aquifers and petroleum in oil fields. Major industry research
projects have been dedicated during the last decades to the study of faulted and fractured
reservoirs.
Fault types
Geologists can categorize faults into three groups based on the sense of slip:
• Normal dip-slip fault
• Reverse fault
• Transform (strike-slip) faults
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 Introduction
E. M. Anderson’s Faulting Theory
We have to consider the magnitudes of the greatest, intermediate, and least principal stress at
depth (S1, S2, and S3) in terms of Sv, SHmax and Shmin in the manner originally proposed by E. M.
Anderson. As illustrated in Figure 1 and Table 1, the Anderson scheme classifies an area as being
characterized by normal, strike-slip or reverse faulting depending on whether
i. The crust is extending and steeply dipping normal faults accommodate movement of the
hanging wall (the block of rock above the fault) downward with respect to the footwall (the
block below the fault)
ii. Blocks of crust are sliding horizontally past one another along nearly vertical strike-slip
faults
iii. The crust is in compression and relatively shallow-dipping reverse faults are associated with
the hanging wall block moving upward with respect to the footwall block
iv. The Anderson classification scheme also defines the horizontal principal stress magnitudes
with respect to the vertical stress
v. The vertical stress, Sv, is the maximum principal stress (S1) in normal faulting regimes, the
intermediate principal stress (S2) in strike-slip regimes and the least principal stress (S3) in
reverse faulting regimes.
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Figure : E. M. Anderson’s classification scheme

for relative stress magnitudes in normal, strike-
slip and reverse faulting regions.
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Utilizing Borehole Failure to Constrain Stress Magnitude and Rock Strength

Compressional
• Borehole Breakouts
• Incipient Borehole Breakouts

Tensile
• Tensile Wall Failure
• Drilling Enhanced Natural Fractures

Shear
• Slip on Pre-Existing Faults and Bedding
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Borehole Breakouts
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 Introduction
According to the Anderson classification scheme, the horizontal principal stresses may be less
than, or greater than, the vertical stress, depending on the geological setting. The relative
magnitudes of the principal stresses are simply related to the faulting style currently active in a
region.
• As illustrated in above Figure 1, the vertical stress dominates in normal faulting regions (S 1 =

Sv), and fault slip occurs when the least horizontal principal stress (S hmin) reaches a
sufficiently low value at any given depth depending on Sv and pore pressure.
• Conversely, when both horizontal stresses exceed the vertical stress (S 3 = Sv) crustal
shortening is accommodated through reverse faulting when the maximum horizontal principal
stress (SHmax) is sufficiently larger than the vertical stress.

• Strike-slip faulting represents an intermediate stress state (S 2 = Sv), where the maximum
horizontal stress is greater than the vertical stress and the minimum horizontal stress is less
(SHmax Sv Shmin). In this case, faulting occurs when the difference between S Hmax and Shmin is
sufficiently large.
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Figure 2: Variation of stress magnitudes with depth in normal-faulting

stress regime for hydrostatic (a) and overpressure conditions (d)
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Figure 3: Variation of stress magnitudes with depth in strike slip-faulting

stress regime for hydrostatic (b) and overpressure conditions (e)
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Figure 3: Variation of stress magnitudes with depth in strike slip-faulting

stress regime for hydrostatic (c) and overpressure conditions (f)