Geomechanical Laboratory Test Systems
BitCan owns and operates three triaxial tests systems and one shear-box test system. One triaxial test system was donated by Imperial Oil Resources Ltd. It is one of the stiffest triaxial test frames in the world, making it unrivaled in the testing of highly competent materials and the understanding of smooth post-failure behaviour. These features are very important in testing fracability and characteristics of stimulated reservoir volume. The other two triaxial systems target weak and low-mobility formations such as oilsands reservoir sands and its overlying caprock.
All three test systems are capable of operating at a very slow strain rate over a long duration, or being heated at a very slow heating rate. They can test up to 4″ whole cores or 1″ plugs. All the triaxial cells are designed to operate in temperatures up to 200°C and are equipped with acoustic measurement functions. In alignment with BitCan’s principle to not discount soft power we have developed an analytical MPP (Mechanical Property Profile) tool to calculate mechanical properties from well logs. This tool greatly compliments our laboratory test systems by delivering a continuous depth profile and regional distribution of the mechanical properties after they are validated by the laboratory tests.
The laboratory tests yield accurate but individually discrete data points that can be used to validate the laboratory test results; where the MPP tool delivers a continuous depth profile and regional distribution of the mechanical properties after they are validated by the laboratory tests.
More detail on BitCan’s MPP tool can be found in “Technology – MPP tool“.