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Creating Cloud-Fracture Network by Flow-induced Microfracturing in Superhot Geothermal Environments

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Abstract

Superhot geothermal environments with temperatures of approximately 400–500 °C at depths of approximately 2–4 km are attracting attention as new kind of geothermal resource. In order to effectively exploit the superhot geothermal resource through the creation of enhanced geothermal systems (superhot EGSs), hydraulic fracturing is a promising technique. Laboratory-scale hydraulic fracturing experiments of granite have recently demonstrated the formation of a dense network of permeable fractures throughout the entire rock body, referred to as a cloud-fracture network, at or near the supercritical temperature for water. Although the process has been presumed to involve continuous infiltration of low-viscosity water into preexisting microfractures followed by creation and merger of the subsequent fractures, a plausible criterion for cloud-fracture network formation is yet to be clarified. The applicability of the Griffith failure criterion is supported by hydraulic fracturing experiments with acoustic emission measurements of granite at 400 °C under true triaxial stress and at 450 °C under conventional triaxial stress. The present study provides, for the first time, a theoretical basis required to establish the procedure for hydraulic fracturing in the superhot EGS.

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Fig. 1

adapted from Watanabe et al. (2019)

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Abbreviations

P b :

Breakdown pressure

P p :

Pore pressure

P p, frac :

Pore pressure required for fracturing/failure

σ1 :

Maximum principal stress

σ2 :

Intermediate principal stress

σ3 :

Minimum principal stress

σh :

Minimum horizontal stress

σH :

Maximum horizontal stress

σt :

Tensile strength

σv :

Vertical stress

v p 1 :

P-wave velocity for a voxel 1 assigned within a rock sample

v p 2 :

P-wave velocity for a voxel 2 assigned within a rock sample

v p 3 :

P-wave velocity for a voxel 3 assigned within a rock sample

V p :

P-wave velocity defined as 1/Vp = (1/vp1 + 1/vp2 + 1/vp3)/3

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Acknowledgements

The present study was supported in part by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) through Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B) (No. 17H03504), Challenging Research (Exploratory) (No. 18K19039), and JSPS Fellows (No. 20J2020108). The present study was also supported by JSPS and DFG under the Joint Research Program-LEAD (JRPs-LEAD with DFG) (No. JPJSJRP20181605). In addition, some results reported herein were obtained under a project commissioned by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO). K.Y. was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for the GeomInt project, Grant Number 03G0866A within the BMBF Geoscientific Research Program “Geo:N Geosciences for Sustainability”. F.P. was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation): Project number PA 3451/1-1. The authors also would like to thank Toei Scientific Industrial Co., Ltd. for manufacturing the experimental system. The data that support the findings of the present study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Studies for Advanced Society, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai, 9808579, Japan

    Ryota Goto, Noriaki Watanabe, Kiyotoshi Sakaguchi, Takahiro Miura, Eko Pramudyo, Kengo Nakamura, Takeshi Komai & Noriyoshi Tsuchiya

  2. Department of Energy Science and Technology, Graduate School of Energy Science, Kyoto University, Kyoto, 6068501, Japan

    Youqing Chen

  3. Fukushima Renewable Energy Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Koriyama, 9630298, Japan

    Takuya Ishibashi

  4. Chair of Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Technische Universitaet Bergakademie Freiberg, 09599, Freiberg, Germany

    Francesco Parisio

  5. Department of Environmental Informatics, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research–UFZ, 04318, Leipzig, Germany

    Keita Yoshioka

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  1. Ryota Goto
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Correspondence to Noriaki Watanabe.

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Goto, R., Watanabe, N., Sakaguchi, K. et al. Creating Cloud-Fracture Network by Flow-induced Microfracturing in Superhot Geothermal Environments. Rock Mech Rock Eng 54, 2959–2974 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-021-02416-z

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