Abstract

Subcritical crack growth (SCG) is one of the main causes of time-dependent fracturing in rock. Therefore, it is important to study SCG in rock. Additionally, the information of the fracture toughness is also essential to know the fracturing in rock. In this study, the fracture toughness and SCG in sandstone were investigated with Double Torsion method. Especially, the effect of the relative humidity was investigated. It was shown that the fracture toughness decreased with increasing the humidity. For the measurement of SCG, it was shown that the stress intensity factor at a constant crack velocity also decreased with increasing the humidity. When the amount of clays was higher, the decrease of the fracture toughness and the stress intensity factor for SCG with increasing the humidity were more significant. It is concluded that the fracture toughness and SCG in sandstone are affected by the humidity and the amount of clays.

Keywords:
structural geology, relation, water content, SCG, Reservoir Characterization, Berea sandstone, slow crack growth, crack growth, Kushiro sandstone, hydraulic fracturing
Subjects:
Hydraulic Fracturing, Reservoir Characterization, Exploration, development, structural geology
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2009. Taylor and Francis Group. Permission to Distribute - International Society for Rock Mechanics
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