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Experimental Investigation of Drillability Indices of Thermal Granite After Water-Cooling Treatment

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Abstract

Understanding the drillability indices of thermal granite under various water-cooling conditions is of great significance for deep drilling and wellbore stability during the extraction of deep geothermal energy. In this paper, we report the results of micro-drilling tests, indentation hardness tests, friction-and-wear tests as well as conventional physico–mechanical tests on thermal granite after water-cooling treatment, and the relationships between mechanical strength and drilling parameters of granite are discussed based on statistical analysis. In addition, the micro-characteristics of thermal and water-cooling defects in granite were observed via scanning electron microscopy. With increase in thermal temperature, the conventional physico–mechanical parameters and indentation hardness of thermal granite after water-cooling decreased linearly, while the average values of drilling rate, plasticity coefficient, and the mass losses of granite specimens and the grinder increased exponentially. The average P-wave velocity, uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength and indentation hardness decreased by 84.9, 66.2, 73.3 and 66.1%, respectively, when the granite was heated to 600 °C. At 600 °C, the wellbore wall of granite collapsed during the micro-drilling tests and the friction-and-wear tests, and the average width and density of micro-cracks of thermal granite increased to 20.54 μm and 4.82 mm/mm2. The average width and density of micro-cracks in thermal granite under various water-cooling conditions developed gradually with thermal temperature, which was the main reason for the degradation in the drillability indices of granite. Strong links exist between the mechanical strength and drilling parameters of granite after water-cooling, and the drilling parameters of thermal granite can be estimated by the use of mechanical strength with given empirical equations. This study provides a theoretical basis for the geothermally accurate simulation and engineering of wellbore stability for deep hot dry rock drilling.

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Acknowledgments

This work is jointly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41602374 and No. 41674180), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities-Cradle Plan for 2017 (Grant No. CUGL170207) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2019YFB1504201, No. 2019YFB1504203 and No. 2019YFB1504204). We are also grateful to the 3Gdeep group (Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Australia) for their help in providing valuable suggestions on English polishing and manuscript revision.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Center for International Research On Deep Earth Drilling and Resource Development, Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, China

    Hong Tian, Zhennan Zhu, Guosheng Jiang & Bin Dou

  2. Deep Earth Energy Research Laboratory, Department of Civil Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, 3800, Australia

    Pathegama Gamage Ranjith

  3. State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering, School of Mechanics and Civil Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, 221116, China

    Zhennan Zhu

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  1. Hong Tian
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Correspondence to Guosheng Jiang.

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Tian, H., Zhu, Z., Ranjith, P.G. et al. Experimental Investigation of Drillability Indices of Thermal Granite After Water-Cooling Treatment. Nat Resour Res 30, 4621–4640 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11053-021-09926-1

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