The True Triaxial Stress Cell developed at
Curtin University will allow enhanced
investigations of underground conditions.
Image: iStockphoto
WA oil and gas explorations will have a better understanding of the conditions deep beneath the Earth with the release of a new technology from Curtin University.
The True Triaxial Stress Cell (TTSC), the first of its kind in Australia, simulates the conditions encountered when drilling kilometres into the Earth, such as highly anisotropically stressed environments where both horizontal and vertical stresses from tectonic plate shifts occur simultaneously.
Curtin’s Department of Petroleum Engineering Senior Lecturer Dr Vamegh Rasouli says the technology will improve mineral resource companies’ access to oil and gas deposits in WA.
“Using this technology we will be able to observe changes in formation properties which will account for various geological situations, drilling fluid and formation pore pressure.
“If you want to design any kind of mine later on, you would be able to see whether the rock will collapse at that depth or not. This adds to the design capabilities of proposed sites.
“This will, we hope, assist WA companies in accessing the Perth region’s gas deposits, ensuring our energy security and increased gas exports.”
True Triaxial Stress Cell functions by applying large amounts of physical stresses from three different directions independently — one vertical and two horizontal. This allows a large range of drilling scenarios to be simulated by changing the formation and fluid properties and the pressure applied to the model.
“This equipment has been built very flexibly so we can recreate various scenarios similar to the conditions underground. For example the pressure can be extended to equal that encountered 4000 metres below the surface. Also, the pore pressure, which is the pressure inside the grains of the rock, can go to a high value of about 3000 PSI which is about 21-mega pascal,” Dr Rasouli says.
“We use a cube-shaped sample, up to 30cm on any side. The tube is placed inside the sample holder and then we close the whole thing. There are four different pumps directed perpendicular to each other. We can then apply stresses in two different directions and vertically as well.
“We can apply any amount of pressure, we can also apply the fluid pressure which occurs for example when there is oil or any kind of fluid underground, we can recreate that also.”
Dr Rasouli says the research and development of the TTSC began when he realised existing equipment could be combined to improve experiments.
“I suggested we could combine two separate pieces of equipment with two different applications into one unit. The first was the hydraulic fracturing equipment and the sanding analysis. I suggested we could perform both experiments at the same time by changing the inlet and outlet routes.”
The TTSC, now fully operational, was developed in consultation with industry bodies and companies such as Synergy.
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