Failure pattern around the borehole in elastic and strength anisotropic rock formations

<p>This is a Matlab-based program to calculate the failure pattern around the wellbore in elastic and strength anisotropic rock formations under more general cases: (1) generalizing in-situ stress tensor without assuming the vertical stress is one of the principal stresses; (2) generalizing rock elastic stiffness matrix, which is suitable for any types of material symmetry; (3) distinguishing bedding/foliation planes from weak planes where the single plane weakness could be either bedding/foliation planes or joint sets; (4) providing five different failure criteria (Mohr-Coulomb, Modified Lade, Modified Wiebols and Cook, Drucker-Prager, and Mogi-Coulomb criterion) for users to choose to determine the failure of the intact rock mass.</p>

<p>This easily-access program will help researchers conveniently explain enigmatic wandering breakout orientations that are widely observed in wellbore stability and in situ stress analyses. Besides researchers who are specialized in oil and gas exploration, generalizations made in the program are also likely to be an interest to researchers in mining and tunneling as well where more complex stress field might be encountered.</p>

<p>A manuscript entitled “A program to forward model the failure pattern around the wellbore in elastic and strength anisotropic rock formations” has been submitted to International Journal of Rock Mechanics and Mining Sciences. </p>