The Stress-Memory Effect of Fracture Stiffness During Cyclic Loading in Low-Permeability Sandstone

The hydraulic performance and mechanical stability of open fractures are crucial for several subsurface applications including fractured geothermal reservoirs or nuclear waste repositories. Their hydraulic and mechanical properties (fluid flow and fracture stiffness) are both strongly dependent on the fracture geometry. Any change in...

Predicting the Dielectric Response of Saturated Sandstones Using a 2-electrode Measuring System

4-electrode setups are usually used to measure the dielectric response (complex conductivity) of sandstones, as it is known that 2-electrode systems are sensitive to unwanted electrode polarization at low frequency. Moreover, electrode polarization (EP) occurs in the frequency range where the characteristic relaxation associated to the grain...

Salt precipitation due to supercritical gas injection: I. Capillary-driven flow in unimodal sandstone

Drying and salt precipitation in geological formations can have serious consequences for upstream operations in terms of injectivity and productivity. Here we investigate the consequences of supercritical CO2 injection in sandstones. The reported findings are directly relevant for CO2 sequestration and acid–gas injection operations, but might...

Dynamics of foam in porous media

Size effect of concrete and sandstone

A series of uniaxial tension experiments has been conducted to investigate the size effect on strength and fracture energy of concrete and sandstone. The experiments were carried on specimens of six different sizes in a scale range of 1:32. Depending on the material and the curing conditions a stronger or weaker size effect on the nominal...

Dry and hydraulic extensile fracturing of porous impermeable materials

Extensile hydraulic fracturing of mortar is investigated and compared to extensile dry fracturing of sandstone. The extensile fracture experiments have been performed in a Hookean cell in deformation control. The cell allows for axial loading and radial fluid pressure loading of cylindrical specimens. Variables in the experiments are the load...