Geomechanics

Geomechanics (from the Greek prefix geo- meaning "earth"; and "mechanics") involves the study of the mechanics of soil and rock.

Background

The two main disciplines of geomechanics are soil mechanics and rock mechanics. The former deals with the behaviour of soil from a small scale to a landslide scale. The latter deals with issues in geosciences related to rock mass characterization and rock mass mechanics, such as applied to petroleum, mining and civil engineering problems, such as borehole stability, tunnel design, rock breakage, slope stability, foundations, and rock drilling.[1]

Many aspects of geomechanics overlap with parts of geotechnical engineering, engineering geology, and geological engineering. Modern developments relate to seismology, continuum mechanics, discontinuum mechanics, and transport phenomena.

In the petroleum engineering industry, geomechanics is used to predict important parameters, such as in-situ rock stress, modulus of elasticity, leak-off coefficient and Poisson's ratio. Reservoir parameters that include: formation porosity, permeability and bottom hole pressure can be derived from geomechanical evaluation. The geotechnical engineers relies on various techniques to obtain reliable data for geomechanical models. These techniques that have evolved over the years, are: coring and core testing, geophysical log analysis; well testing methods such as transient pressure analysis and hydraulic fracturing stress testing, and geophysical methods such as acoustic emission.

See also

References
  1. "Defining Geomechanics".

Additional sources


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