ALBERT

Beschreibung: Mean S-wave coda quality factors (mean-Qc) were estimated from active ultrasonic transmission (UT) measurements acquired during the STIMTEC project in the URL Reiche Zeche (Saxony, Germany). We used S-coda waves of 88 selected UT measurements carried out in 3 differently oriented boreholes (BH10, BH12, BH16) to estimate the spatial change of the coda quality factor in the targeted rock volume, an anisotropic metamorphic gneiss. We also analysed temporal variation in attenuation before and after hydraulic stimulations performed in two boreholes (BH10, BH17). We formed in total 8 UT groups (see data table "2022-004_Blanke-and-Boese_mean_UT_event_locations") from neighbouring UT measurements within different depths and from separated time intervals (see also Tab. 1 in Blanke et al. 2023), and compare mean-Qc estimates of centre frequencies ranging 3-21 kHz of octave-width frequency bands. Our results show a characteristic frequency-dependence and we find that mean-Qc estimates reveal temporal-variations of attenuation more significantly than those obtained from velocity measurements. The temporal variations are strongly connected to hydraulic stimulation activities resulting in a reduction of the coda quality factor where AE events occurred. Analysis of mean-Qc estimates after a temporal resting phase (with no activity in the rock volume) suggests that frequencies 〉 15 kHz indicate healing of small-scale fractures induced by injections. The study shows that coda analysis is a powerful tool for the detection of damage zones and for monitoring changes of the local fracture network within reservoirs important for exploitation or underground storage of gases and liquids.

Beschreibung: Studies of controlled hydraulic stimulation experiments with active and passive seismic monitoring conducted in Underground Research Laboratories (URLs) benefit from specific knowledge of hydraulic parameters, close by microseismic monitoring revealing structural details of the rock mass, and detailed evolution of seismicity in response to injection operations. Microseismic monitoring is commonly used to characterize a stimulated reservoir volume, for example, in terms of damage evolution of the rock mass. Since seismic attenuation is affected by damage of the rock volume, active seismic sources covering sizes from the centimetre to decimetre scale may help us to investigate space–time varying attenuation properties in a reservoir. This may allow us to monitor damage evolution of the stimulated rock volume in more detail, also since active seismic sources produce stronger signals leading to a broader frequency range that can be analysed compared to passive seismic signals. Within the STIMTEC project in the URL Reiche Zeche (URL-RZ) in Freiberg (Germany), more than 300 active Ultrasonic Transmission (UT) measurements were performed before and after hydraulic stimulations in two boreholes in the targeted rock volume, an anisotropic metamorphic gneiss. The signal-frequency content ranges between 1 and 60 kHz. Assuming scattering attenuation to dominate over intrinsic attenuation, we here apply the single isotropic scattering model. S-coda waves of 88 spatially representative UT measurements are used to estimate the coda quality factor (QC). We obtain stable QC estimates for centre frequencies of octave-width frequency bands between 3 and 21 kHz. We group neighbouring UT measurements to stabilize the observations and form eight UT groups in total, covering different depth intervals in three boreholes and four different time periods to investigate scattering attenuation changes in a spatiotemporal manner. Our final mean QC (⁠QC¯¯¯¯¯¯¯⁠) estimates show characteristic frequency-dependence as observed at the field scale in geological reservoirs. We find temporal variations of QC are strongly connected to hydraulic stimulation, and these variations are more significant than those resolved from velocity changes. QC¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ estimates at frequencies above 15 kHz indicate healing of injection-induced small-scale fractures during a two-months post-stimulation phase. Larger fractures, mostly sampled by lower frequencies (〈15 kHz), seem to be more persistent with time (over 15 months). We observe spatial differences of QC¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ values near the mine galleries (driftway and vein drift) and relate these observations to different extents and characteristics of the galleries’ excavation damage zones. Our results further support previous assumptions based on borehole televiewer logs and mapped structures of an existing fault with larger damage zone that crosses the stimulated rock volume NW-SE between the galleries. We conclude that the coda analysis of active UT measurements complements established imaging methods used during experiments in URLs. In particular, coda analysis is a powerful tool for the detection of damage zones and for monitoring local fracture networks with immediate application for imaging georeservoirs considered for exploitation or underground storage of gases and liquids.

Beschreibung: In the framework of the STIMTEC and STIMTEC-X hydraulic stimulation experiments at the Reiche Zeche mine, Freiberg (Germany), we installed acoustic emission (AE) sensors for the recording of picoseismicity both conventionally using pneumatic coupling and experimentally like a hydrophone, i.e. the sensors were placed in the borehole without a further coupling system or cementing. We investigate performance measures of the hydrophone-like acoustic emission (HAE) sensors such as frequency bandwidth, sensitivity, first motion polarity, coupling and placement quality to assess the sensor’s applicability in adaptive monitoring networks. HAE sensors can be paired with hydraulic equipment, especially with the double packer probe used for stimulation at the decametre scale because the monitored frequency content differs from injection-related noise. This offers a unique opportunity to improve the network geometry and consequently the quality of a seismic catalogue. We analyse the sensor characteristics using active ultrasonic transmission measurements from boreholes with different orientations in the rock volume, noise measurements preceding active centre punch hits in the access galleries and passive recordings of induced acoustic emission events. HAE sensors placed in water-filled boreholes show good sensitivity performance even without optimal coupling to the crystalline rock for recording distances up to 17 m. The HAE sensors record the wavefield adequately for first-arrival identification, polarity picking and amplitude characteristics but are less suitable for detecting S-waves. Due to the borehole geometry HAE sensors record waves with incidence angles from the side, resulting in opposite polarity compared to side-view AE sensors as observed in the field and lab. We discuss the advantages of adaptive monitoring networks with HAE sensors being optimally placed for each stimulation interval configuration anew to improve seismic event detection and quality of event hypocentre locations during hydraulic stimulations. We show that we are able to significantly reduce the azimuthal gap, halve the location uncertainties and improve the network coverage for the purpose of focal mechanism estimations.

Beschreibung: In 2020 and 2021 the STIMTEC-X hydraulic stimulation experiment was performed at ca.~130 m below surface at the Reiche Zeche underground research laboratory in Freiberg, Saxony/Germany. The project temporally followed the STIMTEC experiment at the same site and aimed at understanding the stress heterogeneity of the anisotropic and metamorphic gneiss rock mass. The STIMTEC-X experiment applied the hydraulic stimulation technique in several boreholes at the mine-scale. Complementary to the stimulations, there were active seismic ultrasonic transmission data acquired before the stimulations. We use a seismic monitoring network consisting of six single-component acoustic emission (AE) sensors (sensitivity 1-60 kHz), six hydrophone-like AE sensors (sensitivity 1-40 kHz) and four to twelve single-component Wilcoxon accelerometers (sensitivity 50 Hz-25 kHz). The AE sensors and remained stationary in sub-horizontal and upwards reaching boreholes, the accelerometers were mostly installed along the tunnel walls with one accelerometer in a shallow borehole in each tunnel, and the hydrophone-like AE sensors were installed in the down-going water filled boreholes, but repositioned for each measurement campaign (Figure 1). This data set of 120 active ultrasonic transmission (UT) measurements is supplementary to Boese et al. (2022, in review), which introduces some of the active measurement campaigns of the STIMTEC-X experiment in detail. The whole data set togetter with the “Ultrasonic transmission measurements from six boreholes from the STIMTEC experiment, Reiche Zeche Mine, Freiberg (Saxony, Germany)” [https://doi.org/10.5880/GFZ.4.2.2021.002] was used to evaluate performance measures such as sensitivity and frequency bandwith, coupling, placement and polarity of the hydrophone-like AE sensor compared to AE sensors. The active seismic data provided here are from seven boreholes (BH01, BH05, BH06, BH10, BH14, BH18, BH19) as shown in Figure 1. There are nine tables provided as metadata of which seven contain the STIMTEC-X sensor coordinates for each measurement campaign, the event information of all the 120 UT measurements and the UT picks. The UT measurements were recorded with a sampling rate of 1 MHz and results from an automatic stack of 1024 UT pulses generated by the ultrasonic transmitter and recorded by the STIMTEC-X sensors. The UT measurements are saved in binary file format (fsf file format). Fsf-files can be processed with FOCI software: https://www.induced.pl/software/foci. Each fsf file contains 32768 samples, which corresponds to 0.032768 seconds. All UT event files were manual inspected and phase arrivals identified. These are stored in the fsf-file header as well as in the table STIMTECX_UT_picks.csv.

Beschreibung: The understanding of the coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical behavior of fault zones in naturally fractured rocks is essential both for fundamental and applied sciences and in particular for the safety assessment of radioactive waste disposal facilities. An international research program called CHENILLE was built to address key questions related to the impact of high temperatures (up to 120°C) on shear zones as well as fault reactivation processes in shale formations. Here, we report on an ongoing thermally controlled in-situ fluid injection experiment on a strike-slip fault zone outcropping at IRSN’s Tournemire Underground Research Laboratory (URL). This includes a series of laboratory experiments to understand the mechanical, hydraulic, structural and thermal evolution occurring within the fault zones during the thermal and hydraulic loading. Reported preliminary results comprise acoustic emission activity and active seismic monitoring results, the thermal diffusion and the temperature evolution measured in-situ with DTS in and around the fault and the corresponding numerical thermal simulation of the experimental setup.