Decay Law of Supercritical CO₂ Phase Transition-Induced Shock Waves in Rocky Media

Abstract

Supercritical CO2 phase change fracturing technology has been widely used in rock engineering, with the advantages of low disturbance and no pollution. However, the phase change shock wave inevitably affects the surrounding environment, and the influence range is still unclear. In this paper, we present a computational model for the symmetric generation, propagation, and attenuation of supercritical CO2 phase transition shock waves, with the center of the borehole as the origin, based on the C–J theory. The attenuation of the shock wave in the rock medium under the influence of the type of fracturing tube, the thickness of the shear sheet, and the rock performance parameters are further analyzed. The results show that the rock stress under the action of the phase change shock wave attenuates logarithmically with the propagation distance, which correlates with the magnitude of the incident rock stress at the borehole wall. The incident rock stress decreases with the increase in the initial density of CO2 in the fracturing tube, increases linearly with the thickness of the shear sheet, and correlates with the rock wave impedance.

Keywords

• supercritical CO₂
• shock wave
• borehole wall incident rock stress
• attenuation equation