Time-dependent borehole stability in hard-brittle shale
Chuanliang Yan, Leifeng Dong, Kai Zhao, Yuanfang Cheng, Xiaorong Li, Jingen Deng, Zhenqi Li, Yong Chen
Abstract
Rock damage appears in brittle shale even prior to peak stress (i.e., before failure) due to the occurrence of microcracks in these rocks. In this work, a coupled hydromechanical model was built by incorporating the mechanical and fluid seepage induced stresses around a wellbore during drilling. The borehole instability mechanism of hard-brittle shale was studied. The results show that even if a well is simply drilled into a hard-brittle shale formation, the formation around the borehole can be subjected to rock damage. The maximum failure ratio of the formation around the borehole increases with drilling time. A lower drilling fluid density corresponds to a faster increase in the failure ratio of the borehole with time and a shorter period of borehole collapse. When the initial drilling fluid density is too low, serious rock damage occurs in the formation around the borehole. Even though a high-density drilling fluid is used after drilling, long-term borehole stability is difficult to maintain. While drilling in hard-brittle shale, drilling fluid with a proper density should be used rather than increasing the density of the drilling fluid only after borehole collapse occurs, which is more favorable for maintaining long-term borehole stability.