Poromechanics response of an inclined borehole subject to in-situ stress and finite length fluid discharge

Abstract

The analytical approach developed in this paper calculates the poroelastic coupled time-dependent stress and pore pressure variations for an inclined borehole drilled in a fluid saturated porous medium and subjected to the far-field three-dimensional in-situ stresses in addition to a fluid discharge over a finite length of its surface. This problem is encountered in many engineering applications, in particular, in wellbore drilling, fluid injection, and production. A superposition scheme is employed to obtain the analytical solutions within the linear theory of poromechanics. The comparison with an earlier published solution shows a discrepancy in the poroelastic boundary conditions applied at the wellbore wall. In this solution a systematic analysis is being carried out to evaluate the effects of the mechanical parameters on the calculated time-dependent effective tangential stress and pore pressure in addition to the effects of the borehole inclination and the geometry of the flux loading area are also included. © 2010 Mathematical Sciences Publishers.