**Author details**

Michael Molenda\* , Ferdinand Stöckhert, Sebastian Brenne and Michael Alber

\*Address all correspondence to: michael.molenda@rub.de

Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany

### **References**

[1] Mellor, M, & Hawkes, I. Measurement of tensile strength by diametral compression of discs and annuli. Engineering Geology. Elsevier; (1971). , 5(3), 173-225.

[2] Thuro, K, Plinninger, R. J, Zäh, S, & Schütz, S. Scale effects in rock strength proper‐ ties. Part 1: Unconfined compressive test and Brazilian test. Rock Mechanics-A Chal‐ lenge for Society.-881 p., Proceedings of the ISRM Regional Symposium Eurock. (2001). , 169-74.

**Chapter 51**

**Formation Fracturing by Pore**

Sergey Turuntaev, Olga Melchaeva and

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

Pore pressure increase in saturated porous rocks may result in its fracturing and corre‐ sponding microseismic event occurrences. Another type of the porous medium fracturing is related with rapid pore pressure drop at some boundary. If the porous saturated medium has a boundary where it directly contacted with fluid under the high pore pressure, and the pressure at that boundary is dropped, the conditions for tensile cracks can be achieved at some distance from the boundary. In the paper, the results of experimental study of fractur‐ ing of the saturated porous artificial material due to pore pressure rapid drop are presented. It was found that multiple microfracturing occurred during the pore pressure dropping, which is governed by pore pressure gradient. Repeated pressure drops result in subsequent increase of the sample permeability. The permeability was estimated on the basis of non-lin‐ ear pore-elasticity equation with permeability dependent on pressure. The implementation of calculations to laboratory experiment data showed significant variation of the porous sample permeability during the initial non-stationary stage of the fluid pressure drop. The acoustic emission activity variation was found to be controlled by pore pressure gradient and changes of the number of potential fractures, which can be activated by the pore pres‐ sure gradient. It was found, that the probability distribution of these "potential fractures" could be approximated by a Weibull distribution. A way of solution of the inverse problem of local permeability defining from microseismic activity variation in a particular volume of

> © 2013 Turuntaev et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

© 2013 The Author(s). Licensee InTech. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution,

Evgeny Zenchenko

**Abstract**

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/56303

porous medium was suggested.

**Pressure Drop (Laboratory Study)**

