ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: Simulations of many real field operations in the lab require applying three independent stresses to a rock specimen. Hydraulic fracturing and sand production studies are the two typical examples in the oil and gas industry where considering the effect of three principal stresses on rock behavior is significantly influencing the experimental results in the lab. In conventional rock mechanics tests, however, isotropic lateral stresses are applied to a cylindrical rock sample and the size of the standard samples used for such experiments is very small. In this paper, a true triaxial stress cell (TTSC) developed for various lab simulations corresponding to field applications will be introduced. The TTSC allows testing cube samples of up to 30 cm size and at the presence of high independent stresses and pore pressure. The seismic transducers built into the equipment allow monitoring of the events in real time. The results of some experiments, including hydraulic fracturing, sanding and fracture shearing tests, carried out using the TTSC are reported.
