Borehole pressures in an air decked situation

Abstract

In the late 1970s and early 1980s in conjunction with other oil and gas well stimulation studies, personnel from the Dynamic Effects Laboratory performed model testing to demonstrate the effectiveness of utilizing an open section of borehole just before a plug. We called the process stem induced fracturing. The open section beneath the stem was used to increase the pressure magnitude and spread out the duration of the pressure pulse. This technique was later utilized by Frank Chiapetta [Chiappetta, R.F. and Mammele, M.E., 1987, Analytical high-speed photography to evaluate air decks, stemming retention and gas confinement in pre-splitting, reclamation and gross motion applications. Proceedings of 2nd International Symposium on Rock Fragmentation by Blasting, Keystone, Colorado, USA, 257 – 309] in the fracture and fragmentation of rock in quarry blasting situations. He called his technique air deck blasting. In fact, Frank found that the Russians had previously discovered the same technique. There is curre...