Some Approaches to Rock Mass Hydrofracture Theory

Abstract

A new engineering method has been developed at the Leningrad Mining Institute for defining hot dry rock hydrofracturing parameters. It reflects the structural features of a real jointed rock mass, its gravity-tectonic components of the stress tensor and volume character of deformations, taking into account the inertial effects of hydrodynamics in the non-Darcy zone of radial fluid flow near the injection well, and conversion of the heat energy extracted from hot rock by circulating water partly into filtration-flow a d d i t i o d pressure. Results of calculations are compared to field experiments at Fenton Hill, NM, and are used for the first HDR circulation systems in the USSR.