Fracture Sustainability Test, Pre- and Post-Test Photomicrographs

The primary objective of this research is to understand how different rock types, mineral and fluid compositions, and fracture surface textures determine the longevity of fracture apertures, so that selection of reservoir rock can be economically optimized to reduce future refracturing. We are performing laboratory tests to study this in a custom apparatus at conditions relevant to EGS, with temperatures up to 250 degrees C (design maximum 300 degrees C). Our approach is to perform a number of long term (up to several months) laboratory experiments using relevant rock samples with different mineralogies to explore fracture sustainability under EGS conditions. We use an apparatus that allows direct application of a normal force on the fracture faces of a single fracture in a sample having a sheared, tensile fracture. We flow brine of a specified composition through the aperture, and simultaneously measure the fracture permeability and closure. We collect the effluent water for chemical and isotopic analysis. We are numerically modeling our tests and comparing experimental and numerical results.

This submission includes photomicrographs of pre-test (unreacted) and post-test (reacted) samples from Brady well BCH-03 at various depths, Desert Peak well DP 35-13, and samples of Stripa granite. The photomicrographs are provided using uncrossed and crossed polarized light (xpl). UN is uncrossed nicols, CN and xpl are crossed nicols (crossed polars). The magnification listed is just referring to the objective lens that was used, not the total magnification of the images. With a 5x objective, the bottom dimension of an image is 1.75 mm. With 10x the bottom dimension of an image is 0.875 mm, and with 2x the bottom dimension of an image is 4.375 mm.

Data e Risorse

Campo Valore
DOI 10.15121/1666365
accessLevel public
bureauCode {019:20}
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dataQuality true
identifier https://data.openei.org/submissions/3872
issued 2016-09-26T06:00:00Z
landingPage https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1234
license https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
modified 2021-05-17T16:19:17Z
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programCode {019:006}
projectLead Lauren Boyd
projectNumber FY13 AOP 5.1
projectTitle Sustainability of Shear-Induced Permeability for EGS Reservoirs
publisher Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
resource-type Dataset
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Gruppi
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tag
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • aperture
  • bch-03
  • brady-well
  • brine
  • ckan
  • desert-peak
  • dp-35-13
  • egs
  • energy
  • fracture
  • geo
  • geology
  • geoss
  • geothermal
  • national
  • north-america
  • permeability
  • photomicrograph
  • post-test
  • pre-test
  • reservoir
  • shear
  • shear-induced
  • stripa-granite
  • sustainability
  • temperature
  • united-states
  • well-data
  • xpl
isopen True
license_id cc-by
license_title Creative Commons Attribution
license_url http://www.opendefinition.org/licenses/cc-by
maintainer Tim Kneafsey
maintainer_email tjkneafsey@lbl.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-22T05:42:56.338149
metadata_modified 2025-11-22T05:42:56.338154
notes The primary objective of this research is to understand how different rock types, mineral and fluid compositions, and fracture surface textures determine the longevity of fracture apertures, so that selection of reservoir rock can be economically optimized to reduce future refracturing. We are performing laboratory tests to study this in a custom apparatus at conditions relevant to EGS, with temperatures up to 250 degrees C (design maximum 300 degrees C). Our approach is to perform a number of long term (up to several months) laboratory experiments using relevant rock samples with different mineralogies to explore fracture sustainability under EGS conditions. We use an apparatus that allows direct application of a normal force on the fracture faces of a single fracture in a sample having a sheared, tensile fracture. We flow brine of a specified composition through the aperture, and simultaneously measure the fracture permeability and closure. We collect the effluent water for chemical and isotopic analysis. We are numerically modeling our tests and comparing experimental and numerical results. This submission includes photomicrographs of pre-test (unreacted) and post-test (reacted) samples from Brady well BCH-03 at various depths, Desert Peak well DP 35-13, and samples of Stripa granite. The photomicrographs are provided using uncrossed and crossed polarized light (xpl). UN is uncrossed nicols, CN and xpl are crossed nicols (crossed polars). The magnification listed is just referring to the objective lens that was used, not the total magnification of the images. With a 5x objective, the bottom dimension of an image is 1.75 mm. With 10x the bottom dimension of an image is 0.875 mm, and with 2x the bottom dimension of an image is 4.375 mm.
num_resources 9
num_tags 31
title Fracture Sustainability Test, Pre- and Post-Test Photomicrographs