INFLUENCE OF PUMPING ON FOUR-COMPONENT BOREHOLE STRAIN AT TAI'AN SEISMIC STATION AND ITS INTERFERENCE MECHANISM |
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| Authors: | JIA Yuan GAN Wei-jun LI Jie ZHU Cheng-lin YIN Hai-tao LU Shuang-ling JU Jia-bin |
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| Affiliation: | 1.Shandong Earthquake Agency, Jinan 250014, China;2.State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing 100029, China;3.Tonghua Seismic Station of Jilin Province, Tonghua 134000, China |
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| Abstract: | Four-component borehole strainmeter (FCBS) is one kind of high-precision borehole strain observation instruments invented in China. As a kind of near-surface deformation observation instrument, FCBS is also easily disturbed by the external environment factors. As a common factor, pumping has significant influence on FCBS observation. Existing studies mostly identify the pumping interference from the perspective of observation curve morphology, relatively few studies focus on its interference mechanism. In order to truly capture earthquake precursor information, it is necessary to study the interference mechanism. In recent years, RZB-3 type FCBS at Tai'an seismic station has been seriously affected by pumping, so it is necessary and also feasible to study the interference mechanism of pumping. Since the influence of pumping interference on borehole strainmeter is common, this work would be very practical and be used for reference by other borehole strain observation stations.
We find that the original observation curves and observed surface strain, shear strain from RZB-3 type FCBS at Tai'an seismic station have the characteristics of synchronous change with the borehole water level, in which the linear correlation coefficient between the two observed shear strain curves and borehole water level reached 0.70 and 0.82 respectively. We further find that the principal strain direction of borehole and borehole water level after normalization meet the nonlinear function as y=1.217arctan(x)0.224-0.284. The above phenomenon indicates that the observation of RZB-3 type FCBS at Tai'an seismic station is significantly affected by the borehole water level, and the influence is more obvious and the gradient is larger at the stage of low water level. Pumping interference often appears in low water level stage and changes the rock pore pressure state. Statistics show that pumping interference affects the borehole strain state.
To investigate the interference mechanism of pumping to RZB-3 type FCBS at Tai'an seismic station, we take a known pumping as an example, in which we study the principal strain state of the borehole in three periods of normal pumping, interruption of pumping and resuming pumping respectively. During each period, we solve 3 parameters of the principal plane strain state, i.e. the maximum principal strain rate, the minimum principal strain rate and the maximum principal strain direction from four observation equations of FCBS by nonlinear iterative least squares algorithm. On the other hand, concentrated load model (CLM) is used to simulate the mechanical mechanism of pumping. Firstly, the depth of FCBS relative to pumping source and the concentrated load at pumping source are inversed, then, the strain state surrounding the pumping well, including the state at RZB-3 borehole, is simulated by forward modeling. By comparing these results, we find that:
(1)The concentrated load at pumping source inversed by CLM during periods of normal pumping and resuming pumping are both located at or near the bottom of the pumping well, which is consistent with the actual situation, indicating that mechanism and degree of the influence of pumping on borehole strain are well simulated by CLM.
(2)The observed strain state is consistent with the simulation result of pumping interference by forward modeling, indicating that the principal strain state of borehole calculated based on observation of FCBS reflects the true strain state of borehole under different pumping states.(3)The inversed concentrated load at pumping source during pumping periods is significant greater than the load of the pumped water, indicating that the pumping process has more significant influence on the pore pressure of rocks than the load of the pumped water.
Even though CLM is an approximate simulation since it's based on some elastic assumptions, the interference mechanism of pumping on RZB-3 type FCBS at Tai'an seismic station is well explained, which is maybe very helpful for studying the influence of pumping interference on other deformation instruments, locating the unknown pumping source and studying the characteristics of pore pressure of rocks. |
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| Keywords: | borehole component strain pumping interference strain state concentrated load model interference mechanism pore pressure |
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