Stress tensor determination by modified hydraulic tests on pre-existing fractures:Method and stress constraints

The hydraulic testing of pre-existing fractures(HTPF)is one of the most promising in situ stress measurement methods,particularly for three-dimensional stress tensor determination.However,the stress tensor determination based on the HTPF method requires at least six tests or a minimum of 14-15 tests(under different conditions)for reliable results.In this study,we modified the HTPF method by considering the shear stress on each pre-existing fracture,which increased the number of equations for the stress tensor determination and decreased the number of tests required.Different shear stresses were attributed to different fractures by random sampling;therefore,the stress tensors were obtained by searching for the optimal solution using the least squares criterion based on the Monte Carlo method.Thereafter,we constrained the stress tensor based on the tensile strength criterion,compressive strength criterion,and vertical stress constraints.The inverted stress tensors were presented and analyzed based on the tensorial nature of the stress using the Euclidean mean stress tensor.Two stress-measurement campaigns in Weifang(Shandong Province,China)and Mercantour road tunnel(France)were implemented to highlight the validity and efficiency of the modified HTPF(M-HTPF)method.The results showed that the M-HTPF method can be applied for stress tensor inversion using only three to four tests on pre-existing fractures,neglecting the stress gradient.The inversion results were confined to relatively small distribution dispersions and were significantly reliable and stable due to the shear stresses on the fractures and the stress constraints employed.The M-HTPF method is highly feasible and efficient for complete stress tensor determination in a single borehole.

Design and Test of Closed Hydraulic Transmission System of 4WD High-clearance Wheeled Sprayer

In conjunction with the working characteristics of the high-clearance wheeled sprayer and the benefits of the closed hydraulic system,a series of reasonable working parameters should be established,and a hydraulic system that fulfills the requisite specifications should be designed.The AMESim software model is employed to construct a closed hydraulic transmission system,and the simulation analysis is then performed according to the data of hydraulic components.According to analysis results,the prototype can be optimized and upgraded,and a verification test is further carried out.The test results demonstrate that the designed closed hydraulic transmission system meets the actual working requirements of the high-clearance wheeled sprayer and provides a stable experimental platform for intelligent control of agricultural machinery.

Integration of Tracer Test Data to Refine Geostatistical Hydraulic Conductivity Fields Using Sequential Self-Calibration Method

On the basis of local measurements of hydraulic conductivity, geostatistical methods have been found to be useful in heterogeneity characterization of a hydraulic conductivity field on a regional scale. However, the methods are not suited to directly integrate dynamic production data, such as, hydraulic head and solute concentration, into the study of conductivity distribution. These data, which record the flow and transport processes in the medium, are closely related to the spatial distribution of hydraulic conductivity. In this study, a three-dimensional gradient-based inverse method--the sequential self-calibration （SSC） method--is developed to calibrate a hydraulic conductivity field, initially generated by a geostatistical simulation method, conditioned on tracer test results. The SSC method can honor both local hydraulic conductivity measurements and tracer test data. The mismatch between the simulated hydraulic conductivity field and the reference true one, measured by its mean square error （MSE）, is reduced through the SSC conditional study. In comparison with the unconditional results, the SSC conditional study creates the mean breakthrough curve much closer to the reference true curve, and significantly reduces the prediction uncertainty of the solute transport in the observed locations. Further, the reduction of uncertainty is spatially dependent, which indicates that good locations, geological structure, and boundary conditions will affect the efficiency of the SSC study results.

Acoustic emission characterization of microcracking in laboratory-scale hydraulic fracturing tests

Understanding microcracking near coalesced fracture generation is critically important for hydrocarbon and geothermal reservoir characterization as well as damage evaluation in civil engineering structures. Dense and sometimes random microcracking near coalesced fracture formation alters the mechanical properties of the nearby virgin material. Individual microcrack characterization is also significant in quantifying the material changes near the fracture faces （i.e. damage）. Acoustic emission （AE） monitoring and analysis provide unique information regarding the microcracking process temporally, and infor- mation concerning the source characterization of individual microcracks can be extracted. In this context, laboratory hydraulic fracture tests were carried out while monitoring the AEs from several piezoelectric transducers. In-depth post-processing of the AE event data was performed for the purpose of under- standing the individual source mechanisms. Several source characterization techniques including moment tensor inversion, event parametric analysis, and volumetric deformation analysis were adopted. Post-test fracture characterization through coring, slicing and micro-computed tomographic imaging was performed to determine the coalesced fracture location and structure. Distinct differences in fracture characteristics were found spatially in relation to the openhole injection interval. Individual microcrack AE analysis showed substantial energy reduction emanating spatially from the injection interval. It was quantitatively observed that the recorded AE signals provided sufficient information to generalize the damage radiating spatially away from the injection wellbore.

Shear behaviour of a rock bridge sandwiched between incipient joints under the influence of hydraulic pressures

The rock bridges sandwiched in incipiently jointed rock mass were considered as barriers that block the fluid seepage,and provide certain shear strength reservation.For better revealing the influence of hydraulic pressure on the failure behaviour of rock bridges,direct shear tests were carried out through a newly proposed method on rock samples that contain two parallel incipient joints.By developing the gypsum-silicone pad coupling samples,a conventional triaxial test system was qualified to implement direct shear tests with satisfied sealing capability.The results showed that the rock bridges could be failed through the tensile failure,shear failure and mixed failure mechanism.The hydraulic pressure would facilitate the tensile failure mechanism and induce rougher fracture surfaces;while the normal stress would facilitate the shear failure mechanism and induce less rough fracture.The hydraulic pressure reduced the global shear strength of the rock block through reducing the efficient normal stress applied on the rock bridge area,which was highly dependent on the joint persistence,k.Moreover,because of the iterating occurrence of the hydraulic pressure lag with the fracture propagation,the rock bridge failure stage in the shear stress-shear displacement curves displayed a fluctuation trend.

Performance Testing of Tractor Hydraulic Fluids to Simulate In-Use Conditions

Tractor hydraulic fluids are tested to maximize their performance levels and to ensure manufacturer′s standards are met.Common tractor hydraulic fluid tests include: Gear Wear Protection,Brake Chatter Reduction,Wet-Clutch Capacity,and Pump Performance tests.These tests are run by Southwest Research Institute,in the U.S.A.,for tractors built by John Deere and Case-New Holland.This paper details current methods for evaluating tractor hydraulic fluids.The tests that are described utilize full size equipment and were developed by the tractor′s original equipment manufacturers(OEMs).

Design and Experiment of Electronic-hydraulic Loading Test-bed Based on Tractor's Hydraulic Steering By-wire

An Electro-hydraulic loading system is designed based on a test-bed of tractor's hydraulic steering by-wire. To simulate the steering resistance driving tractor in many kinds of soils and roads,the loading force is controlled to make proportional and continuous variable by an electro-hydraulic proportional relief valve. A steering resistance loading test-bed is built to test three kinds of steering resistance including constant,step and sine style. Tire lateral resistance is also tested under different steering conditions. The result shows that the electro-hydraulic loading system has high stability and following performance. Besides,the system's steady state error is lower than 3. 1%,and it meets the test requirement of tractor's hydraulic steering by-wire.

Experimental Analysis of Hydraulic Conductivity for Saturated Granular Soils

Hydraulic conductivity is the ability of a porous media to transfer water through its pore matrix. That is a key parameter for the design and analysis of soil fluid associated structures and issues. This paper presents the test results of the vertical hydraulic conductivity kv carried out on one poorly graded sand and three gap graded gravely sand. It was found that the vertical hydraulic conductivity of saturated soil depends on the grain size distribution curve, on the initial relative density of the soil. Compilation of these current test results and other test results published, shows that the common approaches predict well to some extent the vertical hydraulic conductivity kv for the poorly graded sand materials and underestimate the kv values for gap graded gravely sand materials. Therefore, new approaches are developed for the prediction of the vertical hydraulic conductivity in saturated poorly graded sand and gap graded gravely sand. The derived results from the new approaches lie in the range of the recommended values by (EAU 2012) and (NAVFAC DM 7 1974).

Novel method for operating characteristics test of a hydraulic pump

The traditional testing method of a hydraulic pump requires a large amount of test data from a variety of pump working conditions. The test is usually time-consuming and energy-consu- ming. And the accurate characteristic curves of the pump were hardly obtained due to a limited a- mount and discreteness of the test data. In order to simplify the test procedure and improve the test accuracy, a novel method for measuring hydraulic pump operating characteristic based on multi-ele- ment nonlinear regression （NLMR） modeling is proposed in this paper. The main idea of this model- ing method is establishing a mathematical model to predict the performance parameters of the hy- draulic pump, only a small amount of test data is needed. Consequently, the pump operating charac- teristics in any working conditions are obtained. And the test results of the pump are easily charac- terized in the graphs, charts, tables and so on. The evaluations of the model are carried out and dis- cussed in this paper. The result shows that the test error of the novel method can be controlled to be about 0. 1%. Compared with the traditional test method, the proposed method reduces greatly the test time and the random error of the test data, and improves the efficiency and accuracy of the pump test.

Life prediction and test period optimization research based on small sample reliability test of hydraulic pumps

Hydraulic pumps belong to reliable long-life hydraulic components. The reliability evaluation includes characters such as long test period,high cost,and high power loss and so on. Based on the principle of energy-saving and power recovery,a small sample hydraulic pump reliability test rig is built,and the service life of hydraulic pump is predicted,and then the sampling period of reliability test is optimized. On the basis of considering the performance degradation mechanism of hydraulic pump,the feature information of degradation distribution of hydraulic pump volumetric efficiency during the test is collected,so an optimal degradation path model of feature information is selected from the aspect of fitting accuracy,and pseudo life data are obtained. Then a small sample reliability test of period constrained optimization search strategy for hydraulic pump is constructed to solve the optimization problem of the test sampling period and tightening end threshold,and it is verified that the accuracy of the minimum sampling period by the non-parametric hypothes is tested. Simulation result shows it could possess instructional significance and referenced value for hydraulic pump reliability life evaluation and the test's research and design.

Hydraulic Testing of Compacted Bentonite Used for Plug and Abandonment Operations

The University of Queensland Centre for Coal Seam Gas (UQ CCSG) has investigated plugging wells with bentonite through laboratory experiments and with field trials. This paper presents the laboratory tests, which were used to investigate the stability range of plugged sections for later well plug and abandonment operation designs. The plugs were tested on a specially built well simulator facility at The University of Queensland (UQ), School of Chemical Engineering. The bentonite material used for the plug production was treated with water and 1 weight% polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) which acted as a binder to allow the bentonite to be pressed into a cylindrical shape suitable for dropping into vertical wells. The experiments have shown that the best performing plug/casing size combination is able to hold pressure gradients of up to 5.9 bar/m (25.9 psi/ft) after 296 days of hydration before failing. Open hole simulations on the testing facility showed surprisingly high failure pressure gradients of 21.1 bar/m (93.3 psi/ft) after 146 days of hydration. The findings of this research indicate that the use of compressed bentonite is a viable method for sealing wells, whether they can be coal seam gas wells, conventional oil and gas wells, water wells, or coal exploration wells.

A Reinterpretation of Historic Aquifer Tests of Two Hydraulically Fractured Wells by Application of Inverse Analysis, Derivative Analysis, and Diagnostic Plots

Aquifer test methods have greatly improved in recent years with the advent of inverse analysis, derivative analysis, and diagnostic plots. Updated analyses of past aquifer tests allow for improved interpretations of the data to enhance the knowledge and the predictive capabilities of the flow system. This work thoroughly reanalyzes a series of pre- and post-hydraulic fracturing, single-well aquifer tests conducted in two crystalline rock wells in New Hampshire as part of an early 1970’s study. Previous analyses of the data had relied on older manual type-curve methods for predicting the possible effects of hydraulic fracturing. This work applies inverse analysis, derivative analysis, and diagnostic plots to reanalyze the 1970’s aquifer test data. Our results demonstrate that the aquifer tests were affected by changes in flow regimes, dewatering of the aquifer and discrete fractures, and changes due to well development. Increases in transmissivities are related to well development prior to hydraulic fracturing, propagation of a single, vertical fracture hydraulically connecting the two wells after stimulation and expansion of troughs of depression. After hydraulic fracturing, the estimated total yield of the individual wells increased by 2.5 times due to the hydraulic fracturing. However, the wells may be receiving water from the same source, and well interference may affect any significant increase in their combined yield. Our analyses demonstrate the value in applying inverse analysis, derivative analysis, and diagnostic plots over the conventional method of manual type-curve analysis. In addition, our improvement in the aquifer test interpretation of the 1970’s test data has implications for more reliable estimates of sustained well yields.

RELIABILITY-BASED DESIGN AND ANALYSIS ON HYDRAULIC SYSTEM FOR SYNTHETIC RUBBER PRESS

To overcome the design limitations of traditional hydraulic control systemfor synthetic rubber press and such faults as high fault rate, low reliability, highenergy-consuming and which always led to shutting down of post-treatment product line for syntheticrubber, brand-new hydraulic system combining with PC control and two-way cartridge valves for thepress is developed, whose reliability is analyzed, reliability model of the hydraulic system for thepress is established by analyzing processing steps, and reliability simulation of each step and thewhole system is carried out by software MATLAB, which is verified through reliability test. Thefixed time test has proved not that theory analysis is sound, but the system has characteristics ofreasonable design and high reliability, and can lower the required power supply and operationalenergy cost.

One Novel Hydraulic Actuating System for the Lower-Body Exoskeleton

The hydraulic exoskeleton is one research hotspot in the field of robotics,which can take heavy load due to the high power density of the hydraulic system.However,the traditional hydraulic system is normally centralized,inefficient,and bulky during application,which limits its development in the exoskeleton.For improving the robot's performance,its hydraulic actuating system should be optimized further.In this paper a novel hydraulic actuating system(HAS)based on electric-hydrostatic actuator is proposed,which is applied to hip and knee joints.Each HAS integrates an electric servo motor,a high-speed micro pump,a specific tank,and other components into a module.The specific parameters are obtained through relevant simulation according to human motion data and load requirements.The dynamic models of the HAS are built,and validated by the system identification.Experiments of trajectory tracking and human-exoskeleton interaction are carried out,which demonstrate the proposed HAS has the ability to be applied to the exoskeleton.Compared with the previous prototype,the total weight of the HAS in the robot is reduced by about 40%,and the power density is increased by almost 1.6 times.

Influence of correlation scale errors on aquifer hydraulic conductivity inversion precision

In order to investigate the influence of correlation scale error on the inversion precision of the hydraulic conductivity of the aquifer,the successive linear estimator(SLE)was used to invert the hydraulic conductivity field of a heterogeneous aquifer based on synthetic experiments.By increasing the numbers of observation wells and pumping tests,we analyzed the difference between the estimated and true values of hydraulic conductivity with different correlation scale errors.The relationships between the observation well number and the error in inversion results,and between the pumping test number and the error in inversion results were investigated.The results show that,if the amount of observed head data is insufficient,there will be errors in inversion results with changing correlation scale.Due to the existence of correlation scale error,the improvement of inversion precision gradually slows down with the increase of the amount of observed head data,which indicates that too much observed head data causes data redundancy.Therefore,for the synthetic experiments described in this paper,the observation well number should be less than 41,the pumping test number should be less than 17,and a more suitable method should be selected according to the precision requirements of specific situations in practical engineering.

Lubrication and tribology in seawater hydraulic piston pump

Water hydraulic systems have provoked major interest because of the human friendly and environmental safety aspects. Piston pump is one of the most frequently used hydraulic units in recent engineering technique. In water hydraulic piston pump, poor lubrication is more likely to happen than in oil hydraulic one because of difference in properties between water and oil. So there are some key problems such as corrosive wear and erosion, which are investigated briefly. Many new materials have been developed, which give longer life expectancies with water without corrosion and erosion. A new type of seawater hydraulic piston pumps with better suction characteristics had been developed at HUST. Much of this research has concentrated on new materials, structure and experiments, which are also specially introduced.

A study on the hydraulics of waste stabilization pond

In this study, tracer tests and organic removal tests were conducted on three different ponds in the purpose of evaluating the influence of the flow velocity and dispersion on the hydraulic efficiency of the pond. The authors have compared the hydraulic flow patterns among ponds with different configurations. Experimental and theoretical analyses were performed. This study indicated that the flow characteristics of square ponds are different from that of baffled ponds; the flow velocity and dispersion are equally important factors which affect the pond hydraulics; the number of inserting baffles can be optimized; and the hydraulic efficiency of multistage ponds is superior to that of baffled ponds.

Prediction of Hydraulic Stability of Francis Turbines of Three Gorges Hydropower Station

The Francis turbine of Three Gorges hydropower station is one of the large turbines with great head variation in the world. The operational stability of the turbine has been the top subject for departments of design, research, manufacture and operation to be concerned about. During the course of preparing bid invitation documents and executing the contract for the Three Gorges left power plants turbogenerator units, the hydraulic stability of the turbine was regarded as the most important problem and specific stability indexes of the model turbine and the prototype turbine were respectively specified in the contract. In the model tests for turbine model acceptance, pressure fluctuation phenomena in the case of partial load were found to be different from the usual ones as people had known. Within the range of operating water head, there existed a peak value zone of pressure fluctuations with higher frequencies, and large amplitude pressure fluctuations simultaneously occurred in several localities from the spiral case entrance to the draft tube. On the basis of test results from the model, the influence of cavitation coefficient and aeration on pressure fluctuations is analyzed, and some measures to improve the hydraulic stability of turbines of Three Gorges hydropower station are expounded.

The Application of Bamboo Network Reinforcement Technology on Hydraulic Fill Soft-Soil Foundation Treatment

To make a large area of dredger fill silt surface layer form working face and subsequent construction problems, the project conducts the bamboo network reinforcement in the silt surface layer. It makes the surface layer bearing capacity to meet the construction requirement of deep processing. Based on Shantou Municipal Road Embankment Treatment Engineering and the project, the bamboo network reinforcement technology to reinforce the dredger fill super soft soil surface layer is used. The results show that the bearing capacity of hydraulic fill super soft soil surface layer is 32.6 kPa after 3 months treatment. The surface layer bearing capacity after 3 months treatment improved 323% than the early treatment and increased 695% than no processing. The results indicate that the reinforcement effect is outstanding and provide the basis for drafting the dredger fill super soft soil surface layer treatment plan.

Revisiting the methods of determining hydraulic conductivity of saturated expansive clays in low-compressibility zone

The hydraulic conductivity of saturated clays is commonly determined either directly by monitoring water flux or indirectly based on Terzaghi’s consolidation equation.Similar results are generally obtained from the two methods,but sometimes a significant difference can be observed,in particular for expansive soils.In this study,the hydraulic conductivities determined by the two methods are first compared based on existing data in the literature.The indirect method is then revisited attempting to explain the difference identified.A modified effective stress,considering physico-chemical interaction between face-to-face oriented particles,is finally introduced to better describe the compressibility of expansive clays and to further improve the indirect method in determining hydraulic conductivity of such soils in the low-compressibility zone.Extra tests were performed on Gaomiaozi(GMZ)bentonite slurry and the results obtained allowed the modified indirect method to be verified.