Fracturing Technologies to Enhance Remediation – Part 1
Part one in a series that explores the three main types of fracturing.
Three general categories of fracturing technologies currently are available for site remediation. One is hydraulic fracturing, which creates subsurface fractures by pumping liquid into the formation. Another is pneumatic fracturing, which creates subsurface fractures with controlled bursts of high-pressure air or other gas. Blast fracturing is the other technique, which propagates subsurface fractures by detonation of high explosives. All three techniques propagate fractures by forcing a fluid into the geologic formation at a flow rate that exceeds the natural permeability and at a pressure that exceeds the normal geostatic stress. In blast fracturing, fractures also are generated by stress waves. The velocity of fracture propagation varies considerably among the three techniques, with hydraulic fracturing exhibiting the slowest velocity and blast fracturing the fastest. Pneumatic fracturing exhibits an intermediate propagation velocity.