Ebook: Geomechanics and Fluidodynamics: With Applications to Reservoir Engineering

Geomechanics is the basic science for many engineering fields, including oil and gas recovery, mining, civil engineering, water supply, etc., as well as for many environmental sciences, including earthquake prediction, ecology, landscape dynamics, and explosion works. Historically, the major concepts of geomechanics were founded on the methods of the elasticity theory and the static equilibrium of joints with solid friction. Underground hydrodynamics was developed quite separately and included only simple, conventional ideas of elastic pore-space deformation. Today, the situation is drastically different. Tremendous achievements in numerical computer technique have eliminated many of the routine difficulties of problem solution with respect to selected mathematical models. As the result, major efforts now are applied to sophisticated experimental studies and to new applications of generalized continuum theories. Of course, traditional rheological schemes have been adjusted to be into account the real properties of such geomaterials as soils, rocks and ice. The main changes have been connected with the kinematics of the internal structure of geomaterials that influences their strength and that can play unusual roles in dynamic processes. The theoretical considerations are in good agreement with experimental observations in situ because of precise measuring devices, impact of modern physics concepts and large-scale monitoring.

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This monograph is based on subsurface hydrodynamics and applied geomechanics and puts it in a unifying framework.
It focuses on the understanding of physical and mechanical properties of geomaterials by presenting mathematical models of deformation and fracture with related experiments. Borehole stability and water, gas and oil reservoir states are studied, and the actions of underground explosion and hydrofracture are described. Gas-condensate flows, permafrost and gas-hydrated soil changes, electrokinetic effects and dilatancy are considered. The theory of seismic waves, including their nonlinear evolution, is given.
The structure and rheology of the lithosphere under high pressure and temperature conditions are discussed. The fluid dynamics of the Earth's crust is related to convection and mass-transfer phenomena.
The basic concepts of tectonophysics and earthquake mechanics are connected to tectonic stress transmission, release at earthquake events, and solar system oscillations.
Audience: A monograph for experts in soil, gas and water recovery, reservoir engineering, porous media research, mining, geophysics and geodynamics.