Surface characteristics analysis of fractures induced by supercritical CO_(2)and water through three-dimensional scanning and scanning electron micrography

Morphology of hydraulic fracture surface has significant effects on oil and gas flow,proppant migration and fracture closure,which plays an important role in oil and gas fracturing stimulation.In this paper,we analyzed the fracture surface characteristics induced by supercritical carbon dioxide(SC-CO_(2))and water in open-hole and perforation completion conditions under triaxial stresses.A simple calculation method was proposed to quantitatively analyze the fracture surface area and roughness in macro-level based on three-dimensional(3D)scanning data.In micro-level,scanning electron micrograph(SEM)was used to analyze the features of fracture surface.The results showed that the surface area of the induced fracture increases with perforation angle for both SC-CO_(2)and water fracturing,and the surface area of SC-CO_(2)-induced fracture is 6.49%e58.57%larger than that of water-induced fracture.The fractal dimension and surface roughness of water-induced fractures increase with the increase in perforation angle,while those of SC-CO_(2)-induced fractures decrease with the increasing perforation angle.A considerable number of microcracks and particle peeling pits can be observed on SC-CO_(2)-induced fracture surface while there are more flat particle surfaces in water-induced fracture surface through SEM images,indicating that fractures tend to propagate along the boundary of the particle for SC-CO_(2)fracturing while water-induced fractures prefer to cut through particles.These findings are of great significance for analyzing fracture mechanism and evaluating fracturing stimulation performance.

Investigation on the Electrochemical Polymerization of Catechol by Means of Rotating Ring-disk Electrode

The electrolysis of catechol was studied in the pH values of 1 to 10. The results from the rotating ring disk electrode (RRDE) experiments show that at low pH values, the electrochemical polymerization of catechol was performed by one step, and at higher pH values, the electrochemical polymerization of catechol was carried out by two steps, i.e . oxidation of catechol and followed by polymerization. The intermediates generated at the disk were detected at the ring electrode in the ring potential region of -0.2 to 0 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). One of reasons for the decrease in the ratio of i r to i d with increasing the ring potential is caused by formation of positively charged intermediates at the disk electrode. This ratio increases with increasing the rotation rate of the RRDE, which indicates that the intermediates are not stable. A shielding effect during polymerization of catechol was observed when the ring potential was set at 0.1 V (vs. Ag/AgCl). The electron spin resonance (ESR) of polycatechol shows that polycatechol possesses unpaired electrons. The images of polycatechol films synthesized at different conditions are described.