Frist True-Triaxial Compression Tests on Cubical Shale Samples Carried Out by the Reservoir Geomechanics & Seismicity Research Group

The following post was written by student Alex Vachaparampil.
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The reservoir rock response to stresses play an important role in various petroleum engineering applications including wellbore stability analyses, stimulation, and calibration of well logs for

reservoir geomechanics modeling. Hitherto, most laboratories have not recognized the significance of true-triaxial experiments, and the behavior of oil and gas shales under true-triaxial compression has not been studied. Prof. Ghassemi and Ph.D. student Alex Vachaparampil have developed the necessary expertise and have conducted a series of tests on Mancos, Barnett, and Eagleford shales.The results reveal some new features of shale deformation that could play an important role in production from unconventional resources. These results are being published in a forthcoming paper in the International Journal of Rock Mechanics. The Groups has also developed unique capabilities to perform similar tests on 17” cubical samples. The picture is of the Eagleford shale tested specimens.

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