Experimental Study of Energy Design Optimization for Underwater Electrical Shockwave for Fracturing Applications

Abstract

Underwater electrical shockwave can be used as a waterless, chemical-free, and environmentally friendly fracturing technique. A detailed experimental study was performed to develop a correlation between the optimum energy required to generate a shockwave that could be used in fracturing rock samples with the wire weight and diameter as independent factors. In addition, the effect of the water volume on the Underwater Electrical Wire Explosion (UEWE) was investigated to quantify the effect of the wellbore fluid volume in the fracturing process. The effect of increasing the discharge energy on the current waveform rising rate, peak amplitude, and fracturing geometry was investigated. A baseline for implementing the shockwave fracturing method on cement and limestone samples was defined to be used in future work. The results show that the water volume has a significant effect on the results of the experiment. A correlation was developed that defined the optimum minimum energy required to burn a certain wire weight with consideration to the wire diameter. Using the optimum required energy or higher will increases the current peak amplitude with the same current waveform rise rate, which leads to higher energy deposition into the wire and prevents the premature breakdown of the wire. The generated shockwave was used to successfully fracture cement and limestone cubic samples.