Traffic Light Detection Method for Underground Injection–Induced Seismicity
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 20, Issue 2
Abstract
Pressure buildup induced by geological carbon sequestration (GCS) will decrease the effective stresses in the storage formation, and geomechanical effects of overpressure may affect fault stability, possibly resulting in felt induced seismicity. Predicting the geomechanical stability of faults is of crucial importance for the safety of GCS. We applied a numerical approach to evaluate the potential magnitude of fault slippage for a specific stress regime. Next, we focused on the geometry and structures of fault zones through comprehensive analyses of the thickness of the overburden (), the fault dip (), and the distance between the fault and the injection well (). Based on the relationships of , , and with the corresponding fault behavior, we obtained a traffic light indicator diagram to assess the risk of induced seismicity at a specific level of each factor. To overcome the complicated relationship between factor variations and the corresponding fault slippage, we introduced a danger surface in the traffic light indicator diagram with a security threshold of inducing moderate to strong seismicity to distinguish the danger zone. This approach provides physically sound outcomes for prioritizing the well location to avoid the risk of inducing strong seismicity.
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Data Availability Statement
All data, models, and code generated or used during this study may be obtained upon request.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) under Grant Nos. 41872210, 41274111, and 51809220; the Open Research Fund of State of Key Laboratory of Geomechanics and Geotechnical Engineering under Grant No. Z017008; and the Young Scholars Development Fund of SWPU under Grant No. 201699010097. We also thank the financial support provided by the China National Key Technology R&D Program (Grant No. 2012BAC24B05), the United Fund Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. U1262209), and the National Science and Technology Major Project of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China “Development of Large Oil and Gas Field and Coalbed Methane” (Grant No. 2016ZX05044-004-001).
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International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 20 • Issue 2 • February 2020
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 8, 2019
Accepted: Jul 11, 2019
Published online: Dec 5, 2019
Published in print: Feb 1, 2020
Discussion open until: May 5, 2020
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