Rotation of borehole breakouts by the effect of fractures/faults: observation and numerical model study

Borehole breakouts, rock compressive failure at the wellbore wall, are one of the most widely utilized stress indicators, providing useful site-scale in situ stress states for a variety of geo-engineering projects. A 1 km deep vertical borehole drilled to study earthquakes in southeast Korea showed borehole breakouts rotated in azimuth at several depths by as much as 35° from the average azimuth, enlarging uncertainty in representative stress orientation. These breakouts developed in a highly fractured tuffaceous rock at a depth range from 840 m to 1000 m and breakout rotation always occurred adjacent to fractures and faults. While breakout rotation adjacent to fractures/faults has often been observed previously, there are several issues that have to be addressed regarding such a rotation, that is, would it be a local perturbation associated with drilling that can be ignored when assessing representative in situ stress states?; what aspect of fracture perturbs the stress indicator? To address these questions, we carried out a series of 3D finite element modeling, in which the rock mass consists of a single competent rock type (metamorphosed tuff) with a thin and soft planar fracture crossing the model. A borehole penetrates the center of the model vertically. The fracture orientation was varied from model to model for a given far-field boundary stress condition. The model results show that the rotation of breakouts increases generally (but with wide scattering) with an increase in slip tendency of the fracture. A more detailed analysis shows that the azimuthal rotation of breakouts tends to increase in a clearer manner with an increase in the horizontal shear displacement (or shear strain) component along fracture having relatively high slip tendency. For the reasonable values of mechanical properties assumed in the model, the breakout rotation can be as high as ~34° from the boundary stress orientation imposed in the model. Such stress rotation occurs throughout the extent of the fracture and is reflected in breakout rotation. The model results are quite comparable to the breakout rotations observed in the borehole. Our study suggests that breakout rotation is not just a local feature around the borehole but reflects a site-scale stress rotation associated with the presence of fractures having specific orientations and slip direction.