Abstract
Structural geological texts, research papers and books, are progressively incorporating well logging-related studies and geomechanical issues, including borehole imaging techniques. Geomechanical studies usually involve magnitudes and orientations of the three principal stress axes: Sv—vertical stress, and Shmin and SHmax—the minimum and the maximum horizontal stresses, respectively. Electrical, acoustic or video devices that capture high-resolution images are lowered into the well and give crucial information about bed boundaries, structural elements such as faults, folds, discontinuities, fractures and even secondary porosities such as fractures and vugs. Image log data gives important information about the Shmin and SHmax directions. Hoop stresses acting along the circumference of the borehole wall causes breakouts, and the radial stresses result in tensile fractures known as drilling-induced fractures. Borehole breakouts and drilling-induced fractures can be easily distinguished with the help of borehole images. By integrating the information obtained from image logs and other kinds of well logs, one can get orientations of the minimum and maximum horizontal stresses. We present two problems, relevant to classroom teaching for geoscience students, and solutions related to geomechanical issues and image log interpretation.
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Acknowledgements
Ake Fagereng and Andrea Billi provided detailed comments in multiple rounds, when this article was submitted in a different platform. While we acknowledge their strong efforts, we need to state that we have not been able to accommodate all of their comments. No data was taken from Reliance Industries Limited. For more geo-mechanical discussions, see Patil (2015).
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Dasgupta, T., Dasgupta, S., Mukherjee, S. (2019). Image Log Interpretation and Geomechanical Issues. In: Mukherjee, S. (eds) Teaching Methodologies in Structural Geology and Tectonics. Springer Geology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2781-0_10
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