Preliminary Results of In-situ Stress Measurements along the Longmenshan Fault Zone after the Wenchuan M_s 8.0 Earthquake

Four months after the Wenchuan Ms 8 earthquake in western Sichuan, China, in situ stress measurements were carried out along the Longmenshan fault zone with the purpose of obtaining stress parameters for earthquake hazard assessment. In-situ stresses were measured in three new boreholes by using overcoring with the piezomagnetic stress gauges for shallow depths and hydraulic fracturing for lower depths. The maximum horizontal stress in shallow depths （-20 m） is about 4.3 MPa, oriented N19°E, in the epicenter area at Yingxiu Town, about 9.7 MPa, oriented N51°W, at Baoxing County in the southwestern Longmenshan range, and about 2.6 MPa, oriented N39°E, near Kangding in the southernmost zone of the Longmenshan range. Hydraulic fracturing at borehole depths from 100 to 400 m shows a tendency towards increasing stress with depth. A comparison with the results measured before the Wenchuan earthquake along the Longmenshan zone and in the Tibetan Plateau demonstrates that the stress level remains relatively high in the southwestern segment of the Longmenshan range, and is still moderate in the epicenter zone. These results provide a key appraisal for future assessment of earthquake hazards of the Longmenshan fault zone and the aftershock occurrences of the Wenchuan earthquake.

Advance of in-situ stress measurement in China

In-situ stress is an essential parameter for design and construction of most engineering projects that involve excavation in rocks. Progress in in-situ stress measurement from the 1950s in China is briefly introduced. Stress relief by overcoring technique and hydraulic fracturing： technique are the two main techniques for in-situ stress measurement in China at present. To make them suitable for application at great depth and to increase their measuring reliability and accuracy, a series of techniques have been developed. Applications and achievements of in-situ stress measurement in Chinese rock engineering, including mining, geotechnical and hydropower engineering, and earthquake prediction, are introduced. Suggestions for further development of in-situ stress measurement are also proposed.

Stress Measurement with an Improved Hollow Inclusion Technique In Jinchuan Nickel Mine

Borehole overcoring stress measurement with an improved hollow inclusion technique was carried out at 10 points on 3 levels in Jinchuan nickel mine which is situated in north-west of China. Through the measurement, 3-D in situ stress state at the measuring points and distribution characteristics of the stress field in the mine were obtained. The stress state in Jinchuan mine is dominated by the horizontal tectonic stress field. The maximum principal stress is horizontal which is about twice the weight of the overburden and its orientation is approximately vertical to the regional tectonic line. The difference between two horizontal principal stresses is quite large which is an important reason to cause failure of underground excavations.

New development of hydraulic fracturing technique for in-situ stress measurement at great depth of mines

In-situ stress measurement using the hydraulic fracturing technique was made at Wanfu Coal Mine in Shandong Province, China. To solve problems caused by great measuring depth and extra thick overburden soil layers in the mine, a series of improved techniques were developed for the traditional hydraulic fracturing technique and equipment to increase their pressure-enduring ability and to ensure safe and flexible removal of the sealing packers with other experimental apparatus. Successful in-situ stress measurement at 37 points within 7 boreholes, which were mostly over 1000 m deep, was completed. Through the measurement, detailed information of in-situ stress state has been provided for mining design of the mine. The improved hydraulic fracturing technique and equipment also provide reliable tools for in-situ stress measurement at great depth of other mines.

Analysis on method for effective in-situ stress measurement in hot dry rock reservoir

With the rapid increase of energy demand and the increasingly highlighted environmental problems, clean, safe and widely distributed geothermal resources have become a hot spot for renewable resources development. The state of in-situ stress is a major control parameter for multiple links including well location, fracture inspiration and reservoir assessment, so how to determine the accurate state of in-situ stress in the deep thermal reservoir becomes a core problem drawing widely attention and urgent to be solved. Based on features of hot dry rock reservoir in terms of temperature and pressure and the comparison analysis, this article proposes the method of Anelastic Strain Recovery(ASR) as an effective method for determining the state of in-situ stress in the area with HDR resources distributed and explains the availability of ASR method by application examples.

Techniques for in-situ stress measurement at great depth

Reliable information of in--situ stress state is necessary for the design andconstruction of most important rock projects. As most rock projects are getting deeper and deeper,traditional techniques of in--situ stress measurement are not very suitable. The current techniquesof in--situ stress measurement and their insufficiency for use at great depth are analyzed. Somebasic ideas of the development of new techniques and the improvement of current techniques for useat great depth are provided.

A METHOD FOR CORRECTING INTENSITY IN CONTINU-OUS SCANNING X-RAY STRESS MEASUREMENT

A set of absorption curves was priorly prepared on transparent films to fit the background and peak intensities in continuous scanning X-ray stress measurement.It may be better to correct both background and absorption of pure diffraction intensity.Experimental results revealed this to be a reliable correction method.

Study on in-situ stress measurement around coastal marginal land in Fujian

The in-situ hydraulic fracturing stress measurements have been carried out around the coastal marginal land in Fu- jian Province. And the characteristics of magnitude, direction and distribution of tectonic stress have been obtained. Based on the observed stress data, the characteristics and activities of fault zones are analyzed and studied in the paper according to the Coulomb friction criteria. 1 The maximum horizontal principal compressive stress is in the NW-WNW direction from the north to the south along the coastline verge, which is parallel to the strike of the NW-trending fault zone, consistent with the direction of principal compressive stress obtained from geological structure and across-fault deformation data, and different from that reflected by focal mechanism solution by about 20°. 2 The horizontal principal stress increases with depth, the relation among three stresses is SH>Sv>Sh or SH≈Sv>Sh, and the stress state is liable to normal fault and strike-slip fault activities. 3 According to Coulomb friction criteria and taking the friction strength μ as 0.6~1.0 for analysis, the stress state reaching or exceeding the threshold for normal-fault frictional sliding near the fault implies that the current tectonic activity in the measuring area is mainly normal faulting. 4 The force source of current tectonic stress field comes mainly from the westward and northwestward horizontal extrusions from the Pacific and Philippine Plates respectively to the Eurasian Plate.

MODIFICATION OF SEEMANN-BOHLIN METHOD FOR STRESS MEASUREMENT

The scattered distribution of the lattice parameters in the Seemann-Bohlin method for stress measurement was discussed.A linear relation can be achieved by modification with the theory deduced from Kroner model.However,the Seemann-Bohlin method cannot achieve good accuracy in comparison with the Bragg-Brentauo method,particularly for low stress values.

Reliability analysis of in-situ stress measurement using circumferential velocity anisotropy

In-situ stress measurement for deep reservoir formation is difficult in terms of security, reliability and technique. Acoustic velocity anisotropy test is a basic method for stress measurement of rock cores, which is based on the distribution of acoustic velocity in different directions around rock cores. The heterogeneity of core samples, such as fractures and gravel contained, can also lead to wave velocity anisotropy. Therefore, the corresponding reliability evaluation method is established to exclude some other anisotropy factors caused by non-tectonic stresses. In this paper, the reliability of testing results is evaluated from three aspects, i.e. phase difference, anisotropy index and waveform, to remove the factors caused by non-tectonic stresses.

Hydraulic Fracturing Stress Measurements and Their Implication for the Design of the First Concrete Lined Pressure Shaft in Sri Lanka

The Urea Oya Multipurpose Development Project （UMDP） is a water transfer, hydropower and irrigation in the south-eastern part of the central highland region of Sri Lanka. During geotechnical site investigation program 42 hydraulic fracture tests and 42 impression packer tests were carried out in 3 boreholes to about 840 m depth. Based on the stress measurements the minimum and maximum horizontal stress ratios were calculated. In situ stress computations at all the tests were based on the assumption that the principal stress components were vertical （σv） and horizontal （σH and σh, the maximum and minimum, respectively）. The results of the measurements had a direct impact on the design of the major openings bearing a high overburden--the underground powerhouse and the transformer cavern--and revealed a significant optimization potential concerning the selection of the lining system of the pressure shaft.

Analytical investigation for stress measurement with the rheological stress recovery method in deep soft rock

Due to the difficulty and weakness of current stress measurement methods in deep soft rock, a new rheological stress recovery method of the determination of the three-dimensional(3D) stress tensor is proposed. It is supposed that rock stresses will recovery gradually with time and can be measured by embedding transducers into the borehole. In order to explore the applicability and accuracy of this method, analytical solutions are developed for stress measurement with the rheological stress recovery method in a viscoelastic surrounding rock, the rheological properties of which are depicted as both the Burger's model and a 3-parameter solid model. In such conditions, explicit analytical expressions for predicting time-dependent pressures on the transducer are derived. A parametric analysis is then adopted to investigate the influences of the grout solidification time and the mechanical properties of the grout layer. The results indicate that this method is suitable for stress measurement in deep soft rock, the characteristics of which are soft, fractured and subjected to high geo-stress.

Crustal Stress Measurement for Significant Project Construction and Its Application in Design

The hydrofracturing technique has developed into a reliable and practical method for determining the original three-dimensional crustal stress state of underground caverns,the load-bearing capacity of a high pressure cavern itself,and the high pressure hydraulic permeability of rock masses,and has also been extensively used in disposal of nuclear waste,long and deeply-buried traffic channels and high-pressure cavern engineering for hydraulic power plants.The practice shows that the comprehensive measurement of the physical parameters of the rock mass and taking full use of the wall rock load-bearing capacity to optimize the engineering design hold are very useful in ensuring the engineering safety and improving the design level.

A novel indirect optical method for rock stress measurement using microdeformation field analysis

Stress measurement plays a crucial role in geomechanics and rock engineering,especially for the design and construction of large-scale rock projects.This paper presents a novel method,based on the traditional stress relief approach,for indirectly measuring rock stress using optical techniques.The proposed method allows for the acquisition of full-field strain evolution on the borehole’s inner wall before and after disturbance,facilitating the determination of three-dimensional(3D)stress information at multiple points within a single borehole.The study focuses on presenting the method’s theoretical framework,laboratory validation results,and equipment design conception.The theoretical framework comprises three key components:the optical imaging method of the borehole wall,the digital image correlation(DIC)method,and the stress calculation procedure.Laboratory validation tests investigate strain field distribution on the borehole wall under varying stress conditions,with stress results derived from DIC strain data.Remarkably,the optical method demonstrates better measurement accuracy during the unloading stage compared to conventional strain gauge methods.At relatively high stress levels,the optical method demonstrates a relative error of less than 7%and an absolute error within 0.5 MPa.Furthermore,a comparative analysis between the optical method and the conventional contact resistance strain gauge method highlights the optical method’s enhanced accuracy and stability,particularly during the unloading stage.The proposed optical stress measurement device represents a pioneering effort in the application of DIC technology to rock engineering,highlighting its potential to advance stress measurement techniques in the field.

Bayesian partial pooling to reduce uncertainty in overcoring rock stress estimation

The state of in situ stress is a crucial parameter in subsurface engineering,especially for critical projects like nuclear waste repository.As one of the two ISRM suggested methods,the overcoring(OC)method is widely used to estimate the full stress tensors in rocks by independent regression analysis of the data from each OC test.However,such customary independent analysis of individual OC tests,known as no pooling,is liable to yield unreliable test-specific stress estimates due to various uncertainty sources involved in the OC method.To address this problem,a practical and no-cost solution is considered by incorporating into OC data analysis additional information implied within adjacent OC tests,which are usually available in OC measurement campaigns.Hence,this paper presents a Bayesian partial pooling(hierarchical)model for combined analysis of adjacent OC tests.We performed five case studies using OC test data made at a nuclear waste repository research site of Sweden.The results demonstrate that partial pooling of adjacent OC tests indeed allows borrowing of information across adjacent tests,and yields improved stress tensor estimates with reduced uncertainties simultaneously for all individual tests than they are independently analysed as no pooling,particularly for those unreliable no pooling stress estimates.A further model comparison shows that the partial pooling model also gives better predictive performance,and thus confirms that the information borrowed across adjacent OC tests is relevant and effective.

Principle of in-situ 3D rock stress measurement with borehole wall stress relief method and its preliminary applications to determination of in-situ rock stress orientation and magnitude in Jinping hydropower station

As a main constituent of geological body, the rock masses have distinct differences from other materials, one of which is that rock masses are initially stressed in their natural states. Hence, it is an extremely challenging and significant research project to know the present residual stress of the rock masses in the earth's crust. Although some regularities of distribution of in-situ rock stresses can be deduced, the basic means to study the state of rock stress is in-situ stress measurement. After a brief review of several measuring methods of in-situ 3D rock stress, a new one, borehole wall stress relief method (BWSRM) to determine the in-situ 3D rock stress tensor in a single drilled borehole was proposed. Based on the principle of in-situ rock stress measurement with BWSRM, an original geostress measuring instrument was designed and manufactured. Preliminary experiments for determination of in-situ stress orientation and magnitude were carried out at an experimental tunnel in Jinping Ⅱ hydropower station in China, where the buried depth of overburden was about 2430 m. The results showed that it was feasible to measure the in-situ 3D rock stresses with BWSRM presented in this paper. The BWSRM has a broad prospect for in-situ 3D rock stress measurements in practical rock engineering.

Measurement of surface shear stress vector distribution using shear-sensitive liquid crystal coatings

The global wall shear stress measurement tech- nique using shear-sensitive liquid crystal （SSLC） is extended to wind tunnel measurements. Simple and common every- day equipment is used in the measurement; in particular a tungsten-halogen light bulb provides illumination and a saturation of SSLC coating color change with time is found. Spatial wall shear stress distributions of several typical flows are obtained using this technique, including wall-jet flow, vortex flow generated by a delta wing and junction flow behind a thin cylinder, although the magnitudes are not fully calibrated. The results demonstrate that SSLC technique can be extended to wind tunnel measurements with no complicated facilities used.

Spatial and Temporal Stress Variations before and after the 2008 Wenchuan M_(w)7.9 Earthquake and its Implications:A Study based on Borehole Stress Data

In situ stress measurement data was analyzed to estimate the temporal and spatial stress variations at shallow depths in the Longmenshan fault zone(LMSF),prior to and following the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake(WCEQ).Analysis of the stress field related to fault strength and behavior is useful for understanding geodynamic processes and conducting hazard assessments.The shallow stress changes after the WCEQ show clear along-strike variations.Degrees of stress orientation rotations have a negative correlation with the horizontal principal stress ratios and the WCEQ apparently reduced the magnitude difference between horizontal principal stresses.Taking stress magnitudes and orientation distribution relative to the fault strike into account,we propose an intermediate-strength of LMSF,with a friction coefficient generally constrained between 0.35 and 0.6.In addition,high-pressure fluids in the fault zone reduce the effective normal stress and to a certain degree weaken the fault strength.The accumulated stress over a certain period following release of the WCEQ indicates the start of another earthquake cycle.The changing crustal stress field makes the LMSF stable or slipping optimally during geodynamic processes.The segmentation feature of the shallow crustal stress field in the LMSF may imply a different tectonic loading and seismic release processes along the fault.The southwestern section to the epicenter of the WCEQ favors the occurrence of future earthquakes,as highμm in a state of critical failure was present in this area,which indicates that the Wenchuan and Lushan earthquakes did not release the accumulated stress to a sufficient extent there.

Numerical Simulation and Experimental Study of the Stress Formation Mechanism of FDM with Different Printing Paths

Environmental contamination has been caused by petroleum-based polymeric materials in the melt deposition process.Nowadays biodegradable materials have been widely used in the fused deposition modeling(FDM)industry,such as polylactic acid(PLA).However,internal complex thermal stress and deformations in part caused by an uneven distribution of PLA filament deposition temperatures during FDM,which will seriously affect the geometric accuracy of the printed part.In order to reduce material waste and environmental pollution during the printing process,the accuracy of PLA part can be improved.Herein,numerical simulation was carried out to investigate the temperature field and stress field during the building and cooling process of cuboid specimens.The effects of printing path on the thermal stress and temperature field during the building process were mainly studied.The results show that the printing path has a significant effect on the stress distribution.The most uni-form stress distribution and the smallest deformation were obtained using the Zig Zag printing path.Finally,the residual stress during the cooling process was collected using strain gauges embedded at the mid-plane of the FDM built cuboid specimens.The simulation results are consistent with the experimental results.

Measurements of in situ stress and mining-induced stress in Beiminghe Iron Mine of China

In order to obtain the distribution rules of in situ stress and mining-induced stress of Beiminghe Iron Mine, the stress relief method by overcoring was used to measure the in situ stress, and the MC type bore-hole stress gauge was adopted to measure the mining-induced stress. In the in situ stress measuring, the technique of improved hollow inclusion cells was adopted, which can realize complete temperature compensation. Based on the measuring results, the distribution model of in situ stress was established and analyzed. The in situ stress measuring result shows that the maximum horizontal stress is 1.75-2.45 times of vertical stress and almost 1.83 times of the minimum horizontal stress in this mineral field. And the mining-induced stress measuring result shows that, according to the magnitude of front abutment pressure the stress region can be separated into stress-relaxed area, stress- concentrated area and initial stress area. At the -50 m mining level of this mine, the range of stress-relaxed area is 0-3 m before mining face; the range of stress-concentrated area is 3-55 m before mining face, and the maximum mining-induced stress is 16.5-17.5 MPa, which is 15-20 m from the mining face. The coefficient of stress concentration is 1.85.