Hydraulic fracturing analysis of ice holes in polar geological drilling
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School of Engineering and Technology, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China

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P634

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    Abstract:

    Polar geological drilling is an important means to obtain ice cores and study the evolution of Earth’s climate. When drilling into complex formations such as brittle ice, warm ice, or ice-rock interlayer, hole wall instability frequently occurs, especially the hydraulic fracturing of ice holes, resulting in drilling fluid loss and drilling accidents. Aiming at the initiation and propagation of ice hole fractures, an ice hole fracture model is established based on Peridynamics(PD)to achieve a unified description of the continuous and discontinuous spaces around ice holes, avoid the singularity of the classical continuum mechanical differential equation at the crack tip, analyze the dynamic propagation process of cracks, and explore the influence mechanism of hydraulic pressure and fracture toughness. The case study shows that hydraulic pressure promotes fracture initiation and propagation, and the hydraulic pressure increases from 4.0MPa to 6.0MPa and 8.0MPa, the number of fracture initiation and branches increases significantly, and the fracture volume ratio increases from 4.88% to 9.61% and 12.54%. Fracture toughness hinders fracture propagation, and the fracture volume ratio decreases from 13.72% to 12.13% and 9.61% when fracture toughness increases from to and . The results of hydraulic fracturing analysis of ice holes based on PD show that the drilling fluid density and liquid column height should be adjusted in time to control the hydraulic pressure in the hole to ensure safety and efficiency when drilling into the formation with the prominent ductile-brittle transition.

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History
  • Received:May 15,2023
  • Revised:May 15,2023
  • Adopted:July 31,2023
  • Online: October 21,2023
  • Published: