The hydraulic fracturing treatment is an essential tight sand gas reservoir stimulation that employs viscous fluid to break the formation rock to create a fracture and transport the propping agent to support the fracture from naturally healing. Despite proven economic benefit, the hydraulic fracture fluid damages the producing formation and the propped fracture. To analyze the gel damage effect quantitatively, the filter cake thickness is used as a parameter that has not been measured before. This project was divided into two stages. The first stage built up a filter cake and measured the filter cake thickness by a laser profilometer. A correlation between leakoff volume and filter cake thickness was produced. The second stage eroded the filter cake by flowing original fracturing fluid through the core sample to study the fracturing fluid shear clean up effect on filter cake thickness. The filter cake was built up in the lab and the thickness was measured with different methods. The profilometer has been tested as an effective tool to measure the filter cake thickness. A correlation for crosslinked guar fracture fluid filter cake thickness was produced. An experiment setup used to shear erode the filter cake was built and tested. The results showed the filter cake was not eroded at 200 s-1 shear rate.

Fracture systems or networks always control the stability, deformability, fluid and gas storage capacity and permeability, and other mechanical and hydraulic behavior of rock masses. The characterization of fracture systems is of great significance for understanding and analyzing the impact of fractures to rock mass behavior. Fracture trace data have long been used by engineers and geologists to character fracture system. For subsurface fractures, however, boreholes, wells, tunnels and other cylindrical samplings of fractures often provide high quality fracture trace data and have not been sufficiently utilized. The research work presented herein is intended to interpret fracture traces on borehole walls and other cylindrical surfaces by using stereology. The relationships between the three-dimension fracture intensity measure, P32, and the lower dimension fracture intensity measures are studied. The analytical results show that the conversion factor between the three-dimension fracture intensity measure and the two-dimension intensity measure on borehole surface is not dependent on fracture size, shape or circular cylinder radius, but is related to the orientation of the cylinder and the orientation distribution of fractures weight by area. The conversion factor between the two intensity measures is determined to be in the range of [1.0, π/2]. The conversion factors are also discussed when sampling in constant sized or unbounded fractures with orientation of Fisher distribution. At last, the author proposed estimators for mean fracture size (length and width) with borehole/shaft samplings in sedimentary rocks based on a probabilistic model. The estimators and the intensity conversion factors are tested and have got satisfactory results by Monte Carlo simulations. / Ph. D.

O principal objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar um procedimento de campo para testar o comprimento mínimo que fraturas devem ter para construir uma rede de fluxo em escala de dezenas de metros ao longo de maciços cristalinos. O comprimento mínimo é determinado a partir do limite de percolação, definido por modelos baseados na Teoria da Percolação e a densidade de fraturas no poço, determinada pela perfilagem ótica. Para testar o valor de 3,9 metros que foi encontrado, foram realizados bombeamentos em dois poços próximos enquanto o nível estático era registrado no poço de observação. O método apresenta facilidades em termos de operação e para obter-se o número de fraturas que interceptam o poço, no entanto o registro do nível estático é afetado por fatores externos, como presença de efeitos de maré e variação da pressão atmosférica, e correções são necessárias para permitir identificar a interferência proveniente somente do bombeamento. / The objective of this work is to develop a field procedure to determine a minimum characteristic length forming a connected fracture network in crystalline rocks. This minimum length is determined as a percolation threshold defined by models based on Percolation Theory and fracture density data determined from borehole imaging with well-logging probes. The characteristic length (3.9 meters) once estimated for a testing well was evaluated by monitoring its water head meanwhile nearby wells at different distances were pumped. The water head variation recorded in the testing well was disturbed by interfering effects associated to earth tides and atmospheric pressure, requiring further corrections to isolate effects induced by pumping. The results of these tests validate the percolation limit determined from logging data suggesting a rock mass with very low connectivity. The proposed test can be regarded as simple and easy to apply in many practical situations, for example when evaluating groundwater resources or geotechnical properties in fractured crystalline rocks.

O principal objetivo deste trabalho foi avaliar um procedimento de campo para testar o comprimento mínimo que fraturas devem ter para construir uma rede de fluxo em escala de dezenas de metros ao longo de maciços cristalinos. O comprimento mínimo é determinado a partir do limite de percolação, definido por modelos baseados na Teoria da Percolação e a densidade de fraturas no poço, determinada pela perfilagem ótica. Para testar o valor de 3,9 metros que foi encontrado, foram realizados bombeamentos em dois poços próximos enquanto o nível estático era registrado no poço de observação. O método apresenta facilidades em termos de operação e para obter-se o número de fraturas que interceptam o poço, no entanto o registro do nível estático é afetado por fatores externos, como presença de efeitos de maré e variação da pressão atmosférica, e correções são necessárias para permitir identificar a interferência proveniente somente do bombeamento. / The objective of this work is to develop a field procedure to determine a minimum characteristic length forming a connected fracture network in crystalline rocks. This minimum length is determined as a percolation threshold defined by models based on Percolation Theory and fracture density data determined from borehole imaging with well-logging probes. The characteristic length (3.9 meters) once estimated for a testing well was evaluated by monitoring its water head meanwhile nearby wells at different distances were pumped. The water head variation recorded in the testing well was disturbed by interfering effects associated to earth tides and atmospheric pressure, requiring further corrections to isolate effects induced by pumping. The results of these tests validate the percolation limit determined from logging data suggesting a rock mass with very low connectivity. The proposed test can be regarded as simple and easy to apply in many practical situations, for example when evaluating groundwater resources or geotechnical properties in fractured crystalline rocks.