Chapter 2

Stress and Strain

Suzanne Hunt
Staff Reservoir Engineer
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Stress

What is Rock Stress?

 Scalar Quantity- A scalar is a one-component quantity that is invariant

under rotations eg temp, length.
 Vector Quantity- A vector quantity can have magnitude and direction eg
force, earths magnetic field.
 Tensor Quantity – Rock Stress- 3 dimensional vector (and strain)

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Stress
Tractions and Shear Stress

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Stress
Principal Stress

The stress tensor mathematically

Normal stress and

Fortunately in complex stress
petroleum industry 1
we generally assume
vertical is a principal 2 All perpendicular
stress 3
Max (major), intermed and
minimum (minor)
This is how we describe the stress state
http://www.geology.sdsu.edu/visualstructure/vss/htm_hlp/index.htm
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Stress Units and Definition

1 1
1
1 1
1 1
1

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Lets simplify the problem make the whole problem 2D

 Resolving stresses in 2D lets just worry about the max

and min stress magnitudes and forget intermediate.

 Does intermediate make a difference?

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Normal v Shear Stress

These equations describe a circle

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Good Old Mohrs Circles –
Making Stress Transformation Easier in 2D

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Mohr Explanation –
this is just a graphical way of deriving shear and normal stress on any plane

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Application

Note  and 
same angle
different text books

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Stress and Strain – Modulus and Poissons Ratio

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Stress can be derived using Strain as they are interlinked as follows – why would that be useful to us?

Elastic Isotropic Materials – Lame Parameters

For isotropic materials the general relations between stress and

strain is given

The coefficients  and G are elastic moduli known as the Lame parameters.
G is also known as the modulus of rigidity or the shear modulus. G is a measure of the
samples resistance to shear deformation,  = shear strain.
Another important elastic modulus is the bulk modulus K. Defined as the ratio of hydrostatic
stress p= 1=2=3 while shear stress=0
K is a samples resistance to
hydrostatic compression inverse
of K is known as
compressibility
Young’s mod and Poisson’s
ratio are defined in uniaxial
compression if stress is
uniaxial top equation
reduce to following then
knowing two of these
parameters all the rest can
be defined
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Stress in Cooper Basin
Stress Magnitudes with Depth - Cooper Eromanga Basin

How do we get the Stress (MPa) Shmax (UB)

data for this graph? 0 50 100 150 200

Sigv (LB)
0
1. Density Logs (Sv)
Shmin (UB)

2. LOT’s – Fraccing, Mini 1

Fracture Closure Pressure Shmin (LB)

– Min Stress –Analysis – 2 Shmax (LB)

Fracture Gradient (Shmin)
Depth (km)

3. Borehole Breakout
Sigv (UB)
3
Analysis – Ratio of Geodynamics

Min/Max (SHmax) 4
Shmin

Geodynamics Sv
4. Frictional Limits (SHmax)
5. Core Based Methods
5 Geodynamics
SHmax
Alot of Significant
(DSCA, KE) scatter and uncertainty
variability
6

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Effective Stress

The Effective Stress is
the area between the
PP and the OBP
Overburden Pressure
Pore Pressure
General Definition:
Effective Stress = overburden
stress minus pore pressure;
At In Situ Conditions:
Vertical Effective Stress =
overburden stress - pore
pressure. This portion of the
overburden is carried by the
rock grains.
It is the effective stress that
causes compaction.

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