Stress field

About: Stress field is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 11926 publications have been published within this topic receiving 226417 citations.

Crustal Stress Map of Iran: Insight From Seismic and Geodetic Computations

Abstract: We used the focal mechanisms of crustal earthquakes (depth <40 km) in the period 1909–2012 and the available GPS velocities, derived from the data collected between 1999 to 2011, to estimate the magnitude and directions of maximum principal stress and strain rates in Iran. The Pearson product moment correlation was used to find the correlation between the stress field obtained from the focal mechanism stress inversion and that obtained using the seismic and geodetic strain rates. Our assumption is that stresses in a continuum are produced by tectonic forces and the consequent deformation on the crustal scale. Therefore, the direction of the stress and strain (or strain rate) are ideally to be the same. Our results show a strong correlation between the directions of the principal components of stress and strain (rate) obtained using the different data/methods. Using weighted average analysis, we present a new stress map for Iran.

Present‐day stress orientation in the Clarence‐Moreton Basin of New South Wales, Australia: a new high density dataset reveals local stress rotations

Abstract: Early phases of the Australian Stress Map project revealed that plate boundary forces acting on the Indo-Australian Platecontrol the long wavelength of the maximum horizontal present-day stress orientation in the Australian continent. However, all numerical models of the stress field to date are unable to predict the observed orientation of maximum horizontal stress in the northeast of New South Wales, Australia. Recent coal seam gas exploration in the Clarence-Moreton Basin, eastern Australia, provides an opportunity to better evaluate the state of crustal stress in this part of the continent where only limited information was available prior to this study. Herein, we conduct the first analysis of the present-day tectonic stress in the Clarence-Moreton Basin, from drilling-induced tensile fractures and borehole breakouts interpreted using 11.3km of acoustic image logs in 27 vertical wells. A total of 2822 drilling-induced stress indicators suggest a mean orientation of N069 degrees E (+/- 23 degrees) for the maximum horizontal present-day stress in the basin which is different from that predicted by published geomechanical-numerical models. In addition, we find significant localised perturbations of borehole breakouts, both spatially and with depth, that are consistent with stress variations near faults, fractures and lithological contrasts, indicating that local structures are an important source of stress in the basin. The observation that structures can have a major control on the stresses in the basin suggests that, while gravity and plate boundary forces have the major role in the long wavelength (first-order) stress pattern of the continent, local perturbations are significant and can lead to substantial changes in the orientation of the maximum horizontal present-day stress, particularly at the basin scale. These local perturbations of stress as a result of faults and fractures have important implications in borehole stability and permeability of coal seam gas reservoirs for safe and sustainable extraction of methane in this area.

Compaction-induced stress variations with depth in an active anticline: Northern Apennines, Italy

Abstract: [1] It is shown that the stress field can vary with depth, even within a homogeneous tectonic setting, as documented for the active Mirandola fault-related fold along the buried front of the northern Apennines. Analyses of borehole breakouts and other well data, integrated with seismological information and field evidence, show that extension perpendicular to the fold axis, above approximately 1200 m, changes to a strike-slip stress field and finally to compression near the main detachment at depth. Similar along-depth strain variations recognized in non-active anticlines are usually explained by invoking tangential longitudinal strain folding (i.e., stretching above and shortening below a neutral surface) or gravitational instabilities. However, in this study, we propose that differential compaction may play a significant and generally overlooked role. With the aid of numerical modeling, it is shown that where fold limbs are onlapped by highly compactable deposits (as in the Mirandola area), differential compaction induces stretching at shallow (<1–2 km) depths. The amount of stretching is a function of the shape of the fold and of the thickness of the syn-tectonic sediments. We conclude that in the Mirandola case study, the stress variations observed with depth are the result of a combination of a regional compression at depth and local tension driven by differential compaction of growth strata on the limbs of the anticline with respect to its crest.

The effect of crack blunting on the competition between dislocation nucleation and cleavage

Abstract: To better understand the ductile versus brittle fracture behavior of crystalline materials, attention should be directed towards physically realistic crack geometries. Currently, continuum models of ductile versus brittle behavior are typically based on the analysis of a pre-existing sharp crack in order to use analytical solutions for the stress fields around the crack tip. This paper examines the effects of crack blunting on the competition between dislocation nucleation and atomic decohesion using continuum methods. We accomplish this by assuming that the crack geometry is elliptical, which has the primary advantage that the stress fields are available in closed form. These stress field solutions are then used to calculate the thresholds for dislocation nucleation and atomic decohesion. A Peierls-type framework is used to obtain the thresholds for dislocation nucleation, in which the region of the slip plane ahead of the crack develops a distribution of slip discontinuity prior to nucleation. This slip distribution increases as the applied load is increased until an instability is reached and the governing integral equation can no longer be solved. These calculations are carried out for various crack tip geometries to ascertain the effects of crack tip blunting. The thresholds for atomic decohesion are calculated using a cohesive zone model, in which the region of the crack front develops a distribution of opening displacement prior to atomic decohesion. Again, loading of the elliptical crack tip eventually results in an instability, which marks the onset of crack advance. These calculations are carried out for various crack tip geometries. The results of these separate calculations are presented as the critical energy release rates versus the crack tip radius of curvature for a given crack length. The two threshold curves are compared simultaneously to determine which failure mode is energetically more likely at various crack tip curvatures. From these comparisons, four possible types of material fracture behavior are identified: intrinsically brittle, quasi-brittle, intrinsically ductile, and quasi-ductile. Finally, real material examples are discussed.