Implications for fault reactivation and seismicity induced by hydraulic fracturing

Evaluating the physical mechanisms that link hydraulic fracturing(HF) operations to induced earthquakes and the anticipated form of the resulting events is significant in informing subsurface fluid injection operations. Current understanding supports the overriding role of the effective stress magnitude in triggering earthquakes, while the impact of change rate of effective stress has not been systematically addressed. In this work, a modified critical stiffness was brought up to investigate the likelihood, impact,and mitigation of induced seismicity during and after hydraulic fracturing by developing a poroelastic model based on rate-and-state fraction law and linear stability analysis. In the new criterion, the change rate of effective stress was considered a key variable to explore the evolution of this criterion and hence the likelihood of instability slip of fault. A coupled fluid flow-deformation model was used to represent the entire hydraulic fracturing process in COMSOL Multiphysics. The possibility of triggering an earthquake throughout the entire hydraulic fracturing process, from fracturing to cessation, was investigated considering different fault locations, orientations, and positions along the fault. The competition between the effects of the magnitude and change rate of effective stress was notable at each fracturing stage. The effective stress magnitude is a significant controlling factor during fracturing events, with the change rate dominating when fracturing is suddenly started or stopped. Instability dominates when the magnitude of the effective stress increases(constant injection at each fracturing stage) and the change rate of effective stress decreases(the injection process is suddenly stopped). Fracturing with a high injection rate, a fault adjacent to the hydraulic fracturing location and the position of the junction between the reservoir and fault are important to reduce the Coulomb failure stress(CFS) and enhance the critical stiffness as the significant disturbance of stresses at these positions in the coupled process. Therefore,notable attention should be given to the injection rate during fracturing, fault position, and position along faults as important considerations to help reduce the potential for induced seismicity. Our model was verified and confirmed using the case of the Longmaxi Formation in the Sichuan Basin, China, in which the reported microseismic data were correlated with high critical stiffness values. This work supplies new thoughts of the seismic risk associated with HF engineering.

Wellbore Cleaning Degree and Hydraulic Extension in Shale Oil Horizontal Wells

The efficient development and exploitation of shale oil depends on long-distance horizontal wells. As the degreeof cleaning of the wellbore plays a key role in these processes, in this study, this problem is investigated experimentallyby focusing on the dimensionless cuttings bed height. A method is proposed to calculate the horizontalwellhydraulic extension taking into account the influence of the wellbore cleaning degree on the wellborepressure distribution and assess the effect of a variety of factors such as the bottom hole pressure, the circulatingpressure drop, the drilling pump performance and the formation properties. The analysis shows that the hydraulicextension of horizontal wells decreases with an increase in the cuttings bed height, and the higher the displacementof drilling fluid, the faster the hydraulic extension declines. The annular pressure drop of the horizontalsection increases with the increase of the cuttings bed height, resulting in a higher bottom-hole pressure. Severalarguments are provided to guide the safe drilling of shale oil horizontal wells and overcome the limits of currenttechnological approaches.

Simulation Method and Feature Analysis of Shutdown Pressure Evolution During Multi-Cluster Fracturing Stimulation

Multistage multi-cluster hydraulic fracturing has enabled the economic exploitation of shale reservoirs,but the interpretation of hydraulic fracture parameters is challenging.The pressure signals after pump shutdown are influenced by hydraulic fractures,which can reflect the geometric features of hydraulic fracture.The shutdown pressure can be used to interpret the hydraulic fracture parameters in a real-time and cost-effective manner.In this paper,a mathematical model for shutdown pressure evolution is developed considering the effects of wellbore friction,perforation friction and fluid loss in fractures.An efficient numerical simulation method is established by using the method of characteristics.Based on this method,the impacts of fracture half-length,fracture height,opened cluster and perforation number,and filtration coefficient on the evolution of shutdown pressure are analyzed.The results indicate that a larger fracture half-length may hasten the decay of shutdown pressure,while a larger fracture height can slow down the decay of shutdown pressure.A smaller number of opened clusters and perforations can significantly increase the perforation friction and decrease the overall level of shutdown pressure.A larger filtration coefficient may accelerate the fluid filtration in the fracture and hasten the drop of the shutdown pressure.The simulation method of shutdown pressure,as well as the analysis results,has important implications for the interpretation of hydraulic fracture parameters.

Nonlinear Mathematical Modeling and Sensitivity Analysis of Hydraulic Drive Unit

The previous sensitivity analysis researches are not accurate enough and also have the limited reference value, because those mathematical models are relatively simple and the change of the load and the initial displacement changes of the piston are ignored, even experiment verification is not conducted. Therefore, in view of deficiencies above, a nonlinear mathematical model is established in this paper, including dynamic characteristics of servo valve, nonlinear characteristics of pressure-flow, initial displacement of servo cylinder piston and friction nonlinearity. The transfer function block diagram is built for the hydraulic drive unit closed loop position control, as well as the state equations. Through deriving the time-varying coefficient items matrix and time-varying free items matrix of sensitivity equations respectively, the expression of sensitivity equations based on the nonlinear mathematical model are obtained. According to structure parameters of hydraulic drive unit, working parameters, fluid transmission characteristics and measured friction-velocity curves, the simulation analysis of hydraulic drive unit is completed on the MATLAB/Simulink simulation platform with the displacement step 2 mm, 5 mm and 10 mm, respectively. The simulation results indicate that the developed nonlinear mathematical model is sufficient by comparing the characteristic curves of experimental step response and simulation step response under different constant load. Then, the sensitivity function time-history curves of seventeen parameters are obtained, basing on each state vector time-history curve of step response characteristic. The maximum value of displacement variation percentage and the sum of displacement variation absolute values in the sampling time are both taken as sensitivity indexes. The sensitivity indexes values above are calculated and shown visually in histograms under different working conditions, and change rules are analyzed. Then the sensitivity indexes values of four measurable parameters, such as supply pressure, proportional gain, initial position of servo cylinder piston and load force, are verified experimentally on test platform of hydraulic drive unit, and the experimental research shows that the sensitivity analysis results obtained through simulation are approximate to the test results. This research indicates each parameter sensitivity characteristics of hydraulic drive unit, the performance-affected main parameters and secondary parameters are got under different working conditions, which will provide the theoretical foundation for the control compensation and structure optimization of hydraulic drive unit.

Vibration Performance Analysis of a Mining Vehicle with Bounce and Pitch Tuned Hydraulically Interconnected Suspension

The current investigations primarily focus on using advanced suspensions to overcome the tradeo design of ride comfort and handling performance for mining vehicles. It is generally realized by adjusting spring sti ness or damping parameters through active control methods. However, some drawbacks regarding control complexity and uncertain reliability are inevitable for these advanced suspensions. Herein, a novel passive hydraulically interconnected suspension(HIS) system is proposed to achieve an improved ride-handling compromise of mining vehicles. A lumped-mass vehicle model involved with a mechanical–hydraulic coupled system is developed by applying the free-body diagram method. The transfer matrix method is used to derive the impedance of the hydraulic system, and the impedance is integrated to form the equation of motions for a mechanical–hydraulic coupled system. The modal analysis method is employed to obtain the free vibration transmissibilities and force vibration responses under di erent road excitations. A series of frequency characteristic analyses are presented to evaluate the isolation vibration performance between the mining vehicles with the proposed HIS and the conventional suspension. The analysis results prove that the proposed HIS system can e ectively suppress the pitch motion of sprung mass to guarantee the handling performance, and favorably provide soft bounce sti ness to improve the ride comfort. The distribution of dynamic forces between the front and rear wheels is more reasonable, and the vibration decay rate of sprung mass is increased e ectively. This research proposes a new suspension design method that can achieve the enhanced cooperative control of bounce and pitch motion modes to improve the ride comfort and handling performance of mining vehicles as an e ective passive suspension system.

RELIABILITY ANALYSIS OF THE PRIMARY CYLINDER OF THE 10MN HYDRAULIC PRESS

According to the demand of high reliability of the primary cylinder of the hydraulic press, the reliability model of the primary cylinder is built after its reliability analysis. The stress of the primary cylinder is analyzed by finite element software—MARC, and the structure reliability of the cylinder based on stress strength model is predicted, which would provide the reference to the design.

Thermal–hydraulic analysis of space nuclear reactor TOPAZ-Ⅱ with modified RELAP5

With the advantages of high reliability, power density, and long life, nuclear power reactors have become a promising option for space power. In this study, the Reactor Excursion and Leak Analysis Program 5(RELAP5), with the implementation of sodium–potassium eutectic alloy(NaK-78) properties and heat transfer correlations, is adopted to analyze the thermal–hydraulic characteristics of the space nuclear reactor TOPAZ-Ⅱ.A RELAP5 model including thermionic fuel elements(TFEs), reactor core, radiator, coolant loop, and volume accumulator is established. The temperature reactivity feedback effects of the fuel, TFE emitter, TFE collector,moderator, and reactivity insertion effects of the control drums and safety drums are considered. To benchmark the integrated TOPAZ-Ⅱ system model, an electrical ground test of the fully integrated TOPAZ-Ⅱ system, the V-71 unit,is simulated and analyzed. The calculated coolant temperature and system pressure are in acceptable agreement with the experimental data for the maximum relative errors of 8 and 10%, respectively. The detailed thermal–hydraulic characteristics of TOPAZ-Ⅱ are then simulated and analyzed at the steady state. The calculation results agree well with the design values. The current work provides a solid foundation for space reactor design and transient analysis in the future.

Dynamic impact experiment and response characteristics analysis for 1:2 reduced-scale model of hydraulic support

It is significant to research the impact resistance properties of hydraulic support due to its key support role in the fully mechanized mining face.However,it is difficult for the entire hydraulic support to implement the impact experiment underground and analyze the response characteristic.Therefore,a dynamic impact experiment for the entire hydraulic support was proposed in this paper,where a 1:2 reducedscale model of hydraulic support was designed and its response characteristics under dynamic impact load were analyzed.Firstly,a comprehensive monitoring scheme was proposed to achieve an effective monitoring for dynamic response of hydraulic support.Secondly,a multi-scale impact experiment was carried out for the entire hydraulic support and dynamic behaviors of hydraulic support under the multi-scale impact load were revealed by experimental data.Then a dynamic impact experiment of the entire hydraulic support was simulated in ADAMS with the same experiment conditions,and the experimental and simulation data were verified mutually.Finally,the characteristics of energy conversion and dissipation of the entire experiment system after impact were analyzed.The experiment results showed that the impact resistance properties of hydraulic support largely depended on the initial support conditions and different vertical rigidities affected energy distribution proportion of the entire support system.

Core and blanket thermal-hydraulic analysis of a molten salt fast reactor based on coupling of OpenMC and OpenFOAM

In the core of a molten salt fast reactor(MSFR),heavy metal fuel and fission products can be dissolved in a molten fluoride salt to form a eutectic mixture that acts as both fuel and coolant.Fission energy is released from the fuel salt and transferred to the second loop by fuel salt circulation.Therefore,the MSFR is characterized by strong interaction between the neutronics and the thermal hydraulics.Moreover,recirculation flow occurs,and nuclear heat is accumulated near the fertile blanket,which significantly affects both the flow and the temperature fields in the core.In this work,to further optimize the conceptual geometric design of the MSFR,three geometries of the core and fertile blanket are proposed,and the thermal-hydraulic characteristics,including the three-dimensional flow and temperature fields of the fuel and fertile salts,are simulated and analyzed using a coupling scheme between the open source codes OpenMC and OpenFOAM.The numerical results indicate that a flatter core temperature distribution can be obtained and the hot spot and flow stagnation zones that appear in the upper and lower parts of the core center near the reflector can be eliminated by curving both the top and bottom walls of the core.Moreover,eight cooling loops with a total flow rate of0.0555 m3 s-1 ensur an acceptable temperature distribusure an acceptable temperature distribution in the fertile blanket.

Reliability Analysis of Hydraulic Transmission Oil Supply System of Power-Shift Steering Transmission with GO Methodology

GO methodology is a success-oriented method for system reliability analysis. There are components with multi-fault modes in repairable systems. It is a problem to use the existing GO method to make reliability analysis of such repairable systems. A new GO method for reliability analysis of such repairable systems with multifault modes was presented. Firstly, calculation equations of reliability parameters of operators which were used to describe components with multi-fault modes in reparable systems were derived based on Markov process theory. Then, this new GO method was applied in reliability analysis of a hydraulic transmission oil supply system( HTOSS) of a power-shift steering transmission at low and high speeds. Finally,Compared with fault tree analysis( FTA) and Monte Carlo simulation,the results show that this new GO method is correct and suitable for reliability analysis of repairable system with multi-fault modes.

Potential hydraulic connectivity of coal mine aquifers based on statistical analysis of hydrogeochemistry

Mining activities interfere with the natural groundwater chemical environment,which may lead to hydrogeochemical changes of aquifers and mine water inrush disasters.This study analyzed the hydrochemical compositions of 80 water samples in three aquifers and developed a water source identification model to explore the control factors and potential hydraulic connection of groundwater chemistry in a coal mine.The results showed that the hydrochemical types of the three aquifers were different.The main hydrochemical compositions of the loose-layer,coal-bearing,and limestone aquifers were HCO_(3)·Cl-Na,SO_(4)·HCO_(3)-Na,and SO_(4)-Na·Ca,respectively.The correlation,Unmix,and factor an-alyses showed that the hydrochemical composition of groundwater was controlled by the dissolution of soluble minerals(such as calcite,dolomite,gypsum,and halite)and the weathering of silicate minerals.The factor score plot combined with Q-mode cluster analysis demon-strated no remarkable hydraulic connection among the three aquifers in the study area.The water source identification model effectively identified the source of inrush water.Moreover,the mixing ratio model rationally quantified the contributions of the three aquifers to inrush water.

Modeling and Parameter Sensitivity Analysis of Valve‑Controlled Helical Hydraulic Rotary Actuator System

As a type of hydraulic rotary actuator,a helical hydraulic rotary actuator exhibits a large angle,high torque,and compact structure;hence,it has been widely used in various fields.However,its core technology is proprietary to several companies and thus has not been disclosed.Furthermore,the relevant reports are primarily limited to the component level.The dynamic characteristics of the output when a helical rotary actuator is applied to a closed-loop system are investigated from the perspective of driving system design.Two main aspects are considered:one is to establish a reliable mathematical model and the other is to consider the effect of system parameter perturbation on the output.In this study,a detailed mechanical analysis of a helical rotary hydraulic cylinder is first performed,factors such as friction and load are considered,and an accurate dynamic model of the actuator is established.Subsequently,considering the nonlinear characteristics of pressure flow and the dynamic characteristics of the valve,a dynamic model of a valve-controlled helical rotary actuator angle closed-loop system is described based on sixth-order nonlinear state equations,which has never been reported previously.After deriving the system model,a sensitivity analysis of 23 main parameters in the model with a perturbation of 10%is performed under nine operating conditions.Finally,the system dynamics model and sensitivity analysis results are verified via a prototype experiment and co-simulation,which demonstrate the reliability of the theoretical results obtained in this study.The results provide an accurate mathematical model and analysis basis for the structural optimization or control compensation of similar systems.

A Fatigue Analysis of a Hydraulic Francis Turbine Runner

In this work, the estimation of crack initiation life of a hydraulic Francis turbine runner is presented. The life prediction is based on the local strain approach to predict the initiation life. First, the analysis is carried out in air and in water condition and the runner’s natural frequencies were calculated using the finite element (FE) method. The analysis in air is compared with experimental analysis in order to have a representative model of real runner and subsequently the numerical analysis was perform in water. In the case of the runner immersed in water, the added mass effect due to the fluid structure interaction (FSI) is considered. Second, the static and dynamic stresses were calculated according to life estimation. For the calculation of static stresses, the pressure distribution of water and the centrifugal forces were applied to the runner. The dynamic stresses were estimated for interactions between the guide vane and the runner. Lastly, the estimation of the crack initiation life of the runner was obtained.

Structure Parameters Optimization Analysis of Hydraulic Hammer System

In order to improve the impact performance, the structure of hydraulic hammer should be optimized. In this paper, the ranges of eight vital structure parameters of piston and reversing valve system of hydraulic hammer were selected firstly;and then found the best value of different parameters under experiments with the method of computer optimization and the parametric analysis method provided by ADAMS software. These methods worked and the best design values of parameters of hydraulic hammer were obtained. At last, the optimal impact energy of virtual prototype of hydraulic breaking hammer was calculated and compared with the original impact performance. The results reveal that impact performance of hydraulic hammer has been improved significantly.

Thermal hydraulic and mechanical analysis of CH HCSB TBM

Based on the structure design and results of neutronics analysis of the CH HCSB TBM (Chinese helium cooled solid breeder test blanket module), thermal hydraulic and mechanical analyses have been carried out. Results show that the design of the CH HCSB TBM is reasonable and acceptable.

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.

Fault detection of excavator’s hydraulic system based on dynamic principal component analysis

In order to improve reliability of the excavator's hydraulic system, a fault detection approach based on dynamic principal component analysis(PCA) was proposed. Dynamic PCA is an extension of PCA, which can effectively extract the dynamic relations among process variables. With this approach, normal samples were used as training data to develop a dynamic PCA model in the first step. Secondly, the dynamic PCA model decomposed the testing data into projections to the principal component subspace(PCS) and residual subspace(RS). Thirdly, T2 statistic and Q statistic performed as indexes of fault detection in PCS and RS, respectively. Several simulated faults were introduced to validate the approach. The results show that the dynamic PCA model developed is able to detect overall faults by using T2 statistic and Q statistic. By simulation analysis, the proposed approach achieves an accuracy of 95% for 20 test sample sets, which shows that the fault detection approach can be effectively applied to the excavator's hydraulic system.

Thermo-hydraulic analysis for sub-module of Chinese HCSB TBM design

Thermo-hydraulic calculation and analysis for sub-module of Chinese HCSB TBM were carried out using FE code ANSYS. Results indicate that temperature distribution in materials used in sub-module is reasonable and acceptable.

Rapid Thermal-Hydraulic Analysis and Design Optimization of ITER Upper ELM Coils

ITER edge localized mode （ELM） coils are important components of the in-vessel coils （IVCs） and they are designed for mitigating or suppressing ELMs. The coils located on the vacuum vessel （VV） and behind the blanket are subjected to high temperature due to the nuclear heat from the plasma, the Ohmic heat induced by the working current and the thermal radiation from the environment. The water serves as coolant to remove the heat deposited into the coils. Based on the results of nuclear analysis, the thermal-hydraulic analysis is performed for the preliminary design of upper ELM coils using a rapid evaluation method based on 1D treatment. The thermal-hydraulic design and operating parameters including the water flow velocity are optimized. It is found that the rapid evaluation method based on 1D treatment is feasible and reliable. According to the rapid analysis method, the thermal hydraulic parameters of two water flow schemes are computed and proved similar to each other, providing an effective basis for the coil design. Finally, considering jointly the pressure drop requirement and the cooling capacity, the flow velocity is optimized to 5 m/s.