EXPLOSIVE FRACTURE STUDIES ON OIL-SHALE

Fracture, fragmentation, and/or enhanced permeability through explosive methods can be difficult to achieve in the often restricted environment demanded of in-situ resource recovery methods. Blasting within confined volumes and the need for uniform fragment size and permeability adds a dimension for which a history of blasting experience is not available. Computer modeling offers a potential tool for rapid evaluation and optimization of the explosive and geometry parameters. This study deals with intermediate-scale explosive blasting tests within confined volumes that have been conducted on blocks of oil shale to evaluate a computational fracture model under realistic loading conditions.