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Physical simulations of cavity closure in a creeping material

Description: The finite element method has been used extensively to predict the creep closure of underground petroleum storage cavities in rock salt. Even though the numerical modeling requires many simplifying assumptions, the predictions have generally correlated with field data from instrumented wellheads, however, the field data are rather limited. To gain an insight into the behavior of three-dimensional arrays of cavities and to obtain a larger data base for the verification of analytical simulations … more
Date: September 1, 1985
Creator: Sutherland, H.J. & Preece, D.S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Structural analysis of the West Hackbery No. 6 SPR storage cavern

Description: Four separate structural analyses of the West Hackberry No. 6 SPR storage cavern are presented. One analysis covers the creep response of the cavern beginning shortly before the time when an accidental fire occurred and proceeding through the cavern recertification pressure test. The second analysis models the surface uplife that is expected during the same pressure test. The third and fourth numerical studies investigate the structural response of West Hackberry No. 6 to slabbing and a rapid p… more
Date: August 1, 1980
Creator: Benzley, S.E.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Lost circulation technology development status

Description: Lost circulation is the loss of drilling fluid from the wellbore to fractures or pores in the rock formation. In geothermal drilling, lost circulation is often a serious problem that contributes greatly to the cost of the average geothermal well. The Lost Circulation Technology Development Program is sponsored at Sandia National Laboratories by the US Department of Energy. The goal of the program is to reduce lost circulation costs by 30--50% through the development of mitigation and characteri… more
Date: January 1, 1992
Creator: Glowka, D. A.; Schafer, D. M.; Loeppke, G. E.; Scott, D. D.; Wernig, M. D. & Wright, E. K.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Evidence of former higher temperatures from alteration minerals, Bostic 1-A well, Mountain Home, Idaho

Description: Cuttings from the silicic volcanics in the Bostic 1-A well near Mountain Home, Idaho have been examined petrographically with the assistance of x-ray diffraction and electron microprobe analyses. Results indicate that these rocks have been subjected to much higher temperatures than were observed in the well in 1974, when a static temperature log was run. It is not known to what extent the alternation may be due to greater depth of burial in the past, or whether it resulted from an early hydroth… more
Date: January 1, 1982
Creator: Arney, B.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Pressure losses in fracture-dominated reservoirs: the wellbore constriction effect

Description: Improved energy production from many types of energy reservoirs such as hot dry rock geothermal as well as hydraulically fractured oil, gas, and other geothermal reservoirs requires a better understanding of the fluid mechanics in the vicinity of the fracture-wellbore intersection. Typically, the aperture (smallest dimension) of a hydraulic fracture is only of the order of 1 mm (0.04 in.) so that reasonable energy production rates from geothermal systems require fairly large flow velocities wit… more
Date: January 1, 1980
Creator: Murphy, H.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Geology, hydrothermal petrology, stable isotope geochemistry, and fluid inclusion geothermometry of LASL geothermal test well C/T-1 (Mesa 31-1), East Mesa, Imperial Valley, California, USA

Description: Borehole Mesa 31-1 (LASL C/T-1) is an 1899-m (6231-ft) deep well located in the northwestern part of the East Mesa Geothermal Field. Mesa 31-1 is the first Calibration/Test Well (C/T-1) in the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL), Geothermal Log Interpretation Program. The purpose of this study is to provide a compilation of drillhole data, drill cuttings, well lithology, and formation petrology that will serve to support the use of well LASL C/T-1 as a calibration/test well for geothermal l… more
Date: August 1, 1980
Creator: Miller, K. R. & Elders, W. A.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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An overview of acoustic telemetry

Description: Acoustic telemetry has been a dream of the drilling industry for the past 50 years. It offers the promise of data rates which are one-hundred times greater than existing technology. Such a system would open the door to true logging-while-drilling technology and bring enormous profits to its developers. The basic idea is to produce an encoded sound wave at the bottom of the well, let it propagate up the steel drillpipe, and extract the data from the signal at the surface. Unfortunately, substant… more
Date: January 1, 1992
Creator: Drumheller, D. S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Equipment develoment report: downhole fluid injector

Description: The development, design, fabrication, and operation of a tool used for injecting a discrete quantity of fluid (e.g. a dye) at a desired location within a hot geothermal borehole are described. Assembly and operating instructions are included.
Date: February 1, 1978
Creator: Archuleta, J. R.; Fink, C. F. & Kurtenbach, J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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System for producing a uniform rubble bed for in-situ processes

Description: A method and a cutter are disclosed for producing a large cavity filled with a uniform bed of rubblized oil shale or other material, for in-situ processing. A raise drill head has a hollow body with a generally circular base and sloping upper surface. A hollow shaft extends from the hollow body. Cutter teeth are mounted on the upper surface of the body and relatively small holes are formed in the body between the cutter teeth. Relatively large peripheral flutes around the body allow material to… more
Date: April 10, 1981
Creator: Galloway, Terry R.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Recommended new criteria for the selection of nuclear waste repository sites in Columbia River basalt and US Gulf Coast domed salt

Description: Screening criteria and specifications are recommended to aid in the evaluation of sites proposed for nuclear waste disposal in basalt and domed salt. The recommended new criteria proposed in this report are intended to supplement existing repository-related criteria for nuclear waste disposal. The existing criteria are contained in 10 CFR 60 sections which define siting criteria of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and ONWI 33(2) which defines siting criteria of the Office of Nuclear Was… more
Date: June 16, 1980
Creator: Steinborn, T.L.; Wagoner, J.L.; Qualheim, B.; Fitts, C.R.; Stetkar, R.E. & Turnbull, R.W.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Estimate of earth media shear strength at the Nevada Test Site

Description: A method is presented of estimating the effective shear strength of the fractured rock that surrounds a nuclear detonation. To do this, we measure the cavity radii from previous detonations. We also use numerical computer codes to model the explosion phenomenology and develop the functional relationship between the normalized cavity displacement and the normalized shear strength of the rock. In this sense, the computer codes serve as replica models that are dimensionally analyzed to interpret t… more
Date: November 3, 1977
Creator: Terhune, R. W. & Glenn, H. D.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Hot dry rock, an alternate geothermal energy resource: a challenge for instrumentation

Description: The natural internal heat from the Earth is one of the cleanest, nearly inexhaustible energy sources. The hot dry rock that composes most of the Earth's crust has the potential of becoming one of the largest reservoirs of energy economically available in the near future. The Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, for the past five years, has been working toward exploiting this very abundant, clean energy source. The LASL technique to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of extracting h… more
Date: January 1, 1978
Creator: Dennis, B.R. & Horton, E.H.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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1991 Yearly calibration of Pacific Northwest Laboratory's gross gamma-ray borehole geophysical logging system

Description: This report describes the 1991 yearly calibration of a gross gamma-ray geophysical pulse logging system owned by the US Department of Energy (DOE) and operated by the Pacific Northwest Laboratory. The calibration was conducted to permit the continued use of this system for geologic and hydrologic studies associated with remedial investigations at the Hanford Site. Primary calibrations to equivalent uranium units were conducted in DOE borehole model standards that reside on the Hanford Site. The… more
Date: August 1, 1991
Creator: Arthur, R.J.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Seismic velocities and attenuation in an underground granitic waste repository subjected to heating

Description: The behavior of a granitic rock mass subjected to thermal load has been studied by an acoustic cross-hole technique between four boreholes, over a period of some two years. Velocities between boreholes were obtained from the times-of-flight of pulses of acoustic waves between transducers clamped to the borehole wall. The attenuation was obtained by a spectral ratios technique. When the heater was turned on, the velocities increased rapidly to an asymptotic value. When the heater was turned off,… more
Date: March 1, 1984
Creator: Paulsson, B.N.P. & King, M.S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Phase 2 drilling operations at the Long Valley Exploratory Well (LVF 51--20)

Description: This report describes the second drilling phase, completed to a depth of 7588 feet in November 1991, of the Long Valley Exploratory Well near Mammoth Lakes, California. The well in Long Valley Caldera is planned to reach an ultimate depth of 20,000 feet or a bottomhole temperature of 500{degrees}C (whichever comes first). There will be four drilling phases, at least a year apart with scientific experiments in the wellbore between active drilling periods. Phase 1 drilling in 1989 was completed w… more
Date: June 1, 1992
Creator: Finger, J. T. & Jacobson, R. D.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Geotomography applied at the Stripa Mine in Sweden

Description: LLNL made ultrahigh-frequency (450-MHz) electromagnetic borehole-to-borehole transmissions in the Stripa Mine near Guldsmedshyttan, Sweden, in April 1979. Transmission loss measurements were made between four sets of 76-mm boreholes 30 m long, located at the end of a drift. Distances between the boreholes varied from 2 to 22 m. More than 25,000 data points were taken. A geotomograph was constructed to show the variation of attenuation between boreholes. The observed spatial variation of electro… more
Date: April 7, 1980
Creator: Okada, J.T.; Laine, E.F.; Lytle, R.J. & Daily,W.D.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Borehole-inclusion stressmeter measurements in bedded salt

Description: Sandia purchased borehole-inclusion stressmeters from a commercial supplier to measure in situ stress changes in bedded salt. However, the supplied stressmeters were difficult to set in place and gave erratic results in bedded salt. These problems were overcome with a new extended platen design. Also a straingaged transducer was designed which can be read with a conventional data logger. Due to the nonlinear behavior of bedded salt under uniaxial loading, a new empirical calibration scheme was … more
Date: July 1, 1980
Creator: Cook, C.W. & Ames, E.S.
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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Basic data report for drillhole WIPP 19 (Waste Isolation Pilot Plant-WIPP)

Description: WIPP 19 is an exploratory borehole whose objective was to determine the nature of the near-surface formations after seismic information indicated a possible fault. The borehole is located in section 20, T.22S., R.31E., in eastern Eddy County, New Mexico, and was drilled between April 6 and May 4, 1978. The hole was drilled to a depth of 1038.2 feet and encountered, from top to bottom, surficial Holocene deposits (7', including artificial fill for drill pad), the Mescalero caliche (7'), the Sant… more
Date: March 1, 1980
Partner: UNT Libraries Government Documents Department
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