Abstract
Hydraulic fracturing has been widely used to enhance reservoir permeability during the extraction of shale gas. As one of the external input parameters, injection rate has a significant impact on formation breakdown pressure and the complexity of hydraulic fractures. To gain deeper insights into the effect of injection rate on breakdown pressure and fracture morphology, we conducted five hydraulic fracturing experiments on Changning shale in the laboratory. We used five different injection rates between 3 and 30 mL/min to fracture cylindrical core samples with 50 mm in diameter and 100 mm in length. We monitored acoustic emissions and surface displacements during the tests, and analyzed the fracture pattern post mortem by using a fluorescent tracer. We find a semi-logarithmic relationship between the breakdown pressure and the injection rates. Second, we find that it is the injection rate that dictates sample deformation and crack formation during breakdown rather than the fluid volume injected during the whole process. The analysis of amplitudes and frequency of acoustic signals indicates that hydraulic fracturing of Changning shale is overall dominated by tensile fractures (> 60%). However, at low injection rates, shear events are facilitated before rock breakdown. On the other hand, high injection rates result in reducing fracture tortuosity and surface roughness due to limited fluid infiltration in the relatively short injection window. We close this study with a conceptual model to explain the difference between fluid infiltration (low injection rates) and the loading rate effect (high injection rate) in low-permeability shale rocks. The findings obtained in this study can help to adjust injection rates in the field to economically and safely produce gas from shale.
Highlights
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Rock expansion upon breakdown is dominated by instantaneous crack opening caused by injection rates.
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Low injection rates reduce the breakdown strength by activating shear cracks in a larger fluid infiltration zone.
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High injection rates have limited effects on fracture morphology.
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A theoretical model is proposed to elucidate the competing mechanism between fluid infiltration and the loading rate effect.
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Data availability
The data that support the findings of this study will be made available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52064006), the Research Fund for Talents of Guizhou University (Grant No. 201901), and the Specialized Research Funds of Guizhou University (Grant No. 201903).
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YZ: investigation, methodology, performing experiment, writing—original draft. YZ: methodology, resources, project administration, funding acquisition. AZ: new diagrams and interpretation of results, writing–review and editing. AL: investigation, performing experiment.
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Zhang, Y., Zhao, Y., Zang, A. et al. Acoustic Emission Evolution and Hydraulic Fracture Morphology of Changning Shale Stressed to Failure at Different Injection Rates in the Laboratory. Rock Mech Rock Eng 57, 1287–1308 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-023-03586-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-023-03586-8