Investigation on influence of drilling unloading on wellbore stability in clay shale formation

Wellbore collapse frequently happens in the clay shale formation.To maintain wellbore stability,appropriate mud pressure is a vital factor.When clay formation is opened,drilling unloading occurs,modifying rock structure and strength at the wall of borehole,which affects the selection of mud pressure.Currently,mechanism of drilling unloading is still poorly understood which in return will bring a concern to wellbore stability.Therefore,in this study,a combination of triaxial compressive test and ultrasonic wave test has been used to simulate drilling unloading and analyze its mechanism.Results indicate that more void space is created inside the clay shale sample due to unloading.This structure change leads to a decline of strength and acoustic amplitude.Additionally,unloading influence is depended on varying drilling unloading parameters.Small unloading range and fast unloading rate are able to enhance stability.With various degrees of unloading impact,collapse pressure equivalent density has a clear modification,proving that unloading is a non-negligible influencing factor of wellbore stability.Besides,the unloading effect is much stronger in large confining pressure,implying that more attention should be given to unloading when drilling is in extreme deep or high geostress formation.Findings in this paper can offer theoretical guidance for drilling in the clay shale formation.

A multi-stage triaxial testing procedure for low permeable geomaterials applied to Opalinus Clay

In many engineering applications,it is important to determine both effective rock properties and the rock behavior which are representative for the problem’s in situ conditions.For this purpose,rock samples are usually extracted from the ground and brought to the laboratory to perform laboratory experiments such as consolidated undrained(CU)triaxial tests.For low permeable geomaterials such as clay shales,core extraction,handling,storage,and specimen preparation can lead to a reduction in the degree of saturation and the effective stress state in the specimen prior to testing remains uncertain.Related changes in structure and the effect of capillary pressure can alter the properties of the specimen and affect the reliability of the test results.A careful testing procedure including back-saturation,consolidation and adequate shearing of the specimen,however,can overcome these issues.Although substantial effort has been devoted during the past decades to the establishment of a testing procedure for low permeable geomaterials,no consistent protocol can be found.With a special focus on CU tests on Opalinus Clay,this study gives a review of the theoretical concepts necessary for planning and validating the results during the individual testing stages(saturation,consolidation,and shearing).The discussed tests protocol is further applied to a series of specimens of Opalinus Clay to illustrate its applicability and highlight the key aspects.

Factor of safety of strain-softening slopes

Stability analysis of strain-softening slopes is carried out using the shear strength reduction method and Mohr-Coulomb model with degrading cohesion and friction angle.The e ffect of strain-softening behavior on the slope factor of safety is investigated by performing a series of analyses for various slope geometries and strength properties.Stability charts and equations are developed to estimate the factor of safety of strain-softe ning slopes from the results of traditional stability analysis based on perfectly-plastic behavior.Two example applications including an open pit mine in weak rock and clay shale slope with daylighting bedding planes are presented.The results of limit equilibrium analysis and shear strength reduction method with perfectly-plastic models were in close agreement.Using perfectly-plastic models with peak strength properties led to overly optimistic results while adopting residual strength properties gave excessively conservative outcomes.The shear strength reduction method with a strain-softening model gave realistic factors of safety while accounting for the process of strength degradation.