Large-Scale Microseismic/ERT Laboratory Experiments to Determine ETS

Response to Water Injection

Prof. Steven D. Glaser
Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Berkeley; glaser@ce.berkeley.edu
Prof. H. F. Morrison
Dept. of Material Science and Mineral Engineering, University of California, Berkeley; hfmengeo@socrates.berkeley.edu
It has long been recognized that injecting water into uid-starved geothermal reservoirs can lessen
the decline of reservoir pressure, reduce the well productivity decline rate, and reduce the gas content in
the produced steam. An example is the Southeast Geysers Efuent Pipeline which increases eld-wide
injection from 30 to 40% to about 60% of the total production. To achieve maximum benet, the rates
and location of injection must be carefully selected since wellhead steam production depends upon the
ow path taken by the injected water in the reservoir. At present, planning of an injection program is
empirical, based on the operators knowledge of the eld. Injection is targeted in areas of severe
pressure decline, superheat and/or high non-condensable gases; but the effects of injection in such areas
are not always positive (e.g. watering out).
This lack of understanding of the injection/reservoir systemmakes it difcult to estimate howmuch
of the injected water would be produced as steam, and how much would remain unrecovered in the
reservoir. Better knowledge of subsurface reaction to water injection, hence a more objective and
quantitative approach to injection, is becoming critical to optimized injection uid recovery as steam,
while minimizing the risk of breakthrough of cool injection water at production wells.
The work proposed herein will combine microseismic imaging of damage kinematics and electro-
resistive tomography laboratory experiments with in situ data to dene the EGS reaction to water
injection. During injection, thermal stresses can fracture the reservoir and damage existing uid
conducting discontinuities, producing acoustic and electromagnetic emissions which can be monitored
to image damage location and kinematics. The advancing uid front will change in situ resistivity
which can also be mapped, possibly from the surface, but certainly using new techniques of cross hole
and surface to bore hole electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) or electromagnetic (EM) imaging.
Streaming potentials associated with these kinematics will provide an independent measure of the
location principal ow paths. From these predictions, a set of guidelines will be developed to optimize
the production/injection strategy.
The specic benets of this project to the geothermal industry include:
providing a basis for improved interpretation of microseismic and electrical data to identify, image,
and characterize uid ow paths in geothermal reservoirs;
demonstration of how routine measurement of physical properties, combined with acoustic and
electromagnetic emission data interpretation, can be used to improve conventional geothermal
reservoir simulation; and nally
providing a quantitative and objective approach for managing the increasing injection rates in a
geothermal eld, including EGS developments.
Our results will directly facilitate the results of upcoming cross-well electromagnetic imaging to be
conducted by Electromagnetic Instruments Inc. under DOE funding. These surveys will be conducted
in a multiplicity of Calpines injection and producing wells in the Geysers area. The fundamental
understanding of the injection-resistivity process determined by our experiments will allow quantitative
interpretation of the eld repeat-survey data, which capture the time-varying resistivity.
Technical Problem Statement
Injection of cold water into a hot geothermal region brings about at least three phenomena in the
formation:
1. A rapid change in the thermal gradients and a mechanical contraction of the rock matrix. The com-
bination can be expected to lead to opening of preexisting fractures and the creation of new frac-
tures. Both dynamics create acoustic emissions.
2. The change in uid content, coupled with the increase in fracture porosity, can be expected to lead
to signicant changes in the bulk electrical resistivity in the volume being quenched. The change in
fracture porosity can lead to large changes in conductivity anisotropy.
3. The ow of injected uid along fresh or preexisting fractures will generate a substantial streaming
potential the return currents from which generate voltage drops measurable between points at depth
(in bore holes) or at the surface.
The heat capacity and thermal conductivity of rocks is such that the front of injected cold water will
create this zone of fracturing (quenching) and altered resistivity as it migrates into the formation.
Eventually the heat capacity of the inter-fracture mass will bring the temperature of the injected water
back up, the thermal stresses will dissipate and the formation will return to the same thermal state that it
had initially. The resistivity may not return to the initial state because the salinity of the injected water
may be different from the water previously withdrawn or displaced by injection. This new water may
leave a permanent imprint on the resistivity signature of the formation. If the injected uids are
resistive, i.e. of low salinity, the streaming potentials will be high and will provide an indirect map of
the location and magnitude of prominent ow paths.
It is likely that acoustic emissions associated with the initial thermal shock fromthe injected water
front as it moves into the formation would provide a means to track the path of this front. In parallel the
advancing front will produce changes in resistivity. In addition the introduction of new water may lead
to a permanent change in resistivity of these parts of the reservoir that have been invaded. Finally the
associated streaming potentials provide an independent measure of the location principal ow paths.
Experimental Program
The purpose of this experimental program is to determine what physical mechanisms are at work
when ambient temperature water is injected into a high temperature geothermal reservoir. What our
experimental program has to offer is the attainment of certainty as to what the actual controlling
physical mechanisms are. We will determine the actual damage mechanics at work, the geo-hydrology
at work, and how these (or other) mechanisms affect ERT - knowledge that can be directly integrated as
constraints to conventional reservoir simulation techniques.
In order to reach this certainty, the experiment must be designed to isolate the physical processes of
interest in as realistic an environment as possible. We are therefore proposing very large physical tests
conducted in a controlled laboratory environment. To account for the actual fractured nature of the in
situ rock mass, size effects of fracture toughness, and undo averaging of electro-resistive properties, the
specimens will be approximately 300 - 400 mm assemblages made up of outcrop rock representative of
reservoir conditions. This size is large enough to capture representative surface roughness without
pushing our ability to scale. The model rock mass will be maintained at the same temperature as the
modeled reservoir - approximately 200 C. Heat will be applied at the outer perimeter, and internally by
steam ooding. Steam with an appropriate quality will be used as the pore uid so that eld
electroresistive behavior and in situ effective stresses can be accurately modeled.
The tests will be conducted in one of two testing devices. One is a polyaxial device, custom-built
for the UC Rock Laboratory by TerraTek in 1995. The device can apply up to 50 MPa loads on a
rectangular specimen (460 mm x 300 mm x 300 mm), on 3 independant axes using at-jacks as the
loading mechanism. This machine would have certain advantages for investigating effects of stress
anisotropy, and because it is self-contained is easier to safely maintain the required temperatures. A
new digital-based test control system incorporating 4 independant digital PID loops, each updated at
300 s intervals, and 16 independent channels of 140 dB CMR signal conditioning, will be used to
control the test. The other testing device is an ultra-stiff 1 million pound MTS 207.70 load frame. The
frame has an axial stiffness of > 6x10
8 lb
/
in
, allowing accurate measurement of post-peak behaviors of
brittle materials. The frame and 20,000 psi pressure vessel has just been refurbished, and is integrated
into our digital control system.
The collected geophysical data provides a direct link to changes in reservoir physical properties
through time, the same physical property changes modeled by reservoir simulation. Integrating this
information as added constraints to the reservoir simulation provide a powerful improvement. We will
investigate this coupling through interactions with Michael Shook at INEEL
Microseismic Work. The proposed laboratory work will localize and fully characterize dislocation
sources from natural and induced crack interfaces, using an approach based on fundamental physical
principles. The challenge is to develop a methodology to interpret those signals, rst in the laboratory
under controlled and known conditions, and then to migrate this understanding to the eld. Given the
ne microseismic surveys made by previous DOE contractors at a variety of thermal elds such as the
Geysers, operators will be able to better utilize microseismic data after we provide correlations with
known mechanics.
The only technique available to acquire this information is acoustic emission (AE) monitoring.
Our approach involves the location of events, and characterization of source kinematics through a
second-order time domain moment tensor calculated from full waveforms rather than rst P-wave
arrivals. This method completely describes the equivalent force time histories that make up an event,
from analysis of the eigenvalues and eigenvectors. The resulting vectors form a parametric model that
captures time and frequency characteristics of the original data, and identify critical features extracted
from each sensor signal.
Analysis such as this can only be done with accurate, quantitative records of motions associated
with the internal dislocation of interest, and is made possible by our custom sensors. These sensors
allow an unbiased time history of internal dislocations to be made, distinguishing between the arrival of
different modes of propagating waves, as well as subtle distinctions as to source kinematics such as
fracture duration, orientation, mode, etc. As proven by NIST calibration, our sensors can measure
displacement to picometers (2.8 mV/pm) with virtually no bias from10 kHz to 1MHz, and are orders of
magnitude more sensitive than the theoretical limits of optical and capacitive sensors - the only other
available sensors which exhibit as high delity response as ours.
Electro-Resistive Tomography. At the same time and on the same rock sample we propose to
emplace arrays of electrodes on the rock faces to monitor the resistivity changes and to monitor the
streaming potentials. The equipment for the electrical measurements on laboratory rock samples of this
size has already been developed for our studies on the electrical properties of concrete. Small contact
area non-polarizing electrodes have been developed for injecting current and measuring voltages on the
surface of rock or concrete.
A major objective of the resistivity experiment will be to energize current-voltage congurations
that will facilitate measurement of resistivity anisotropies induced by fracture and stress anisotropies.
The system will directly measure the resistivities associated with the changing water-steam phases in
the sample and the anisotropy brought about by preferential ows/uid content in the fractures. The
same low-noise electrode arrays will also measure the voltages generated by the uid or steam ow.
None of the geophysical techniques suggested above are themselves new. There have been many
studies in which acoustic emissions have been used to identify dynamic portions of a geothermal
reservoir during normal production, but without absolute physical calibration of the actual mechanisms
and without MTI. Resistivity and EM methods have been used to dene high temperature regions and
to monitor long term changes as production continues. Recently ERT and EMimaging have been used
in bore holes and a high temperature EM system has been used to map fractures in a hot reservoir in
Japan. Streaming potentials are routinely used to monitor leakage paths fromreservoirs and dams. In a
sense the eld methodology is in place to monitor quantitatively the cold water injection process.
The more fundamental issue is to determine the nature of the physical changes that occur when cold
water is injected into a fractured hot rock formation. This problem does not appear to have received
very much attention and yet it lies at the core of any quantitative interpretation of geophysical
monitoring of the injection process.
Why Us?
Professor Steven D. Glaser has worked in quantitative analysis of acoustic emissions (AE) for 13
years. During this time he has been a key proponent of physical and waveform-based AE. He has made
extensive use of high-delity AE sensors of his own design and manufacture. This work has culminated
in his recent development of an embeddable high-delity AE sensor. Dr. Glasers sensor developments
have allowed his extensive investigation of the interpretation of acoustic emission waveforms from
discrete rock fracture. He was awarded the 1993 Basic Research Award by the U.S. National
Committee for Rock Mechanics for this work, and subsequently received the National Science
Foundation Young Investigator award to further develop his real-time analysis of micro-cracking in
brittle materials. Dr. Glaser has collaborated with Shell Exploration and Production Company,
providing acoustic imaging for a automated polyaxial laboratory hydraulic fracture experiment.
The demands of the laboratory study proposed herein are well within the existing capabilities of
Professor Glasers laboratory and leverage previous knowledge and experience. Dr. Glasers laboratory
has unique data acquisition, sensor development, and experimental capabilities. Current work includes
funding from NSF (1999-2002) to develop an acoustic method for imaging of internal damage
mechanisms in rock, using time domain least square inversion of signals from an array of high-delity
AE sensors. Concurrent work on the application of time domain system identication methods to
evaluating site response due to earthquakes can be seen as proof of the feasibility of scaling basic
physical/mechanical understanding to eld scale.
Professor H.F. Morrison has worked with theory, instrumentation, and eld methods of electrical
and electromagnetic imaging for 30 years. He will be responsible for the electrical measurements on
the rock specimens and the interpretation of the resistivity and streaming potential measurements in
terms of uid distribution and ow within the specimens.
Experimental Facilities, Equipment and Other Resources
The capabilities of the Berkeley Rock Laboratory, under the directorship of Professor Steven D.
Glaser, include several high-speed data acquisition systems, a computer-controlled ultrasonic system,
network analysis capabilities, sensor fabrication facilities, and load-testing facilities. A multi-channel
24 bit digital analyzer belonging to Prof. Morrison will be used for the ERT data acquisition. The 3-D
resistivity modeling codes are also readily in place at Morrisons laboratory facility.
Custom Data Acquisition System: twenty 12-bit and four 14-bit high-speed data channels
Each digitizer channel is controlled by its own CPU which oversees memory management, triggering,
and data storage to disk. This results in virtually continuous logging to disk.
data streaming directly to disk (10 Msamples/s per channel)
continuous waveform time-stamping with an accuracy of up to plus/minus 50 ns.
four-channel full and/and/or logic trigger modes
user congurable timed trigger windows
trigger rearming within 25 of microseconds
Active Imaging System: 50 kHz to 5 MHz frequency range (Ritec RAM-10000)
800 V gated amplier
two phase-sensitive receiver channels in quadrature
arbitrary wavelets generated by a PC-mounted arbitrary waveform generator
Switching Matrix: 32-Channel custom, Cytec Inc.
double-layer switching, 160 dB isolation between 800 V source and mV received signals
fully computer-controlled
32 sensor fully stacked sender/receiver scan in 2 seconds
Computational Power: Silicon Graphics workstation and four Linux workstations
Material Testing System:
Stiff MTS 4.6 MN load frame
10.5x10
9
N/m spring rate
500 kN large-opening load frame
4 loop computer-controlled servo-hydraulic servo control
The Berkeley Rock Lab has a full sensor fabrication facility where the Glaser high-delity
acoustic emission sensors (embeddible and non-embeddible) are constructed, and sensor design
improvements evaluated. Fabrication facilities include a hot-air soldering station, vacuum ovens,
machine tools, and specialized hand tools. Calibration facilities include 2 NIST calibrated reference
transducers, and an H-P 4192A network analyzer which allows complete quantication of one- and
two-port systems.