Method of measuring crustal stress by hydraulic fracture based on analysis of crack growth in rock

摘要

Earth's crustal stress is measured by drilling a bore-hole in rock body, producing a longitudinal crack at a selected portion thereof with or without a natural traverse crack through intermittent application of hydraulic pressure thereat while measuring the pressure at different stages of crack production, producing an artificial traverse cracks through the use of a prenotch, determining orientations of the cracks thus produced by inspecting the bore-hole surface conditions, and numerically analyzing the crack orientations and the pressures at different stages of crack production.