Oriented rupture of solids by highly viscous fluid

Conclusions

1. Fluids of varying viscosity may be used for oriented rupture of artificial and natural solids, including rock.

2. The use of highly viscous fluids such as modeling clay differs from the use of low-viscosity fluids such as water in the following major respects:

a) the fissure front propagates some distance ahead of the modeling-clay front; as a result, higher fluid pressure and rupture force are required in this case;

b) in all directions from the center of the borehole and the initiating slot, the motion of the modeling clay occur uniformly, forming practically ideal circular symmetry; this is an important distinguishing feature, which is true of both the fluid and the fissure fronts;

c) in the plane normal to the slot surface, from the borehole axis to the propagation front of the modeling clay, the aperture of the fissure along any radius is described by an ellipse, and the modeling-clay body takes the form of an ellipsoid of revolution.

3. These features of oriented-fissure development under the action of pressurized viscous fluid not only represent valuable increase in our knowledge, but also provide the basis for further experiments, improvement of the OFR method and corresponding equipment, and the development of fundamentally new and nontraditional geotechnologies.