Coupled thermo-hydro-mechanical processes in rock mechanics, with applications to the petroleum industry

This paper reviews the role and importance of thermo-hydro-mechanical (T-H-M) processes in some applications that are of particular relevance to the petroleum industry: thermal loading of a borehole, influence of the rate of pressurization on the breakdown pressure, stability of a borehole, influence of leak-off on the fracturing pressure and closure pressure in hydraulic fracturing, poroelastic mechanisms for deviating hydraulic fracture, and dependence of the drilling response on the virgin pore pressure. Special emphasis is placed on the drained and undrained responses (the two limiting states that characterize T-H-M processes) and on the need to determine criteria defining the conditions for which the two limiting responses are effectively reached.